Transfer Window

Transfer Window is a utopian vision of the wealthy suburbs north of Copenhagen as a luxurious hospice. Everyone wears white. New-age nuns grow organic cannabis on the beach. The internet and music are forbidden, but you can swim in the icy sea in the winter. In amongst it all come the crushing memories of life as a terminal cancer patient, otherwise our narrator and her friend Mikkel hang out, talking about the 80s and about how they would prefer to die. They also laugh at the mistakes of the healthy.

Maria Gerhardt was born in 1978 and grew up in Dragør, not far from Copenhagen. After winning the player of the year award for Dragør FC in 1991, she moved to Copenhagen where she became part of the punk and feminist scenes that were flourishing in the now somewhat gentrified area of Nørrebro. During the 00s, she was the go-to name (under her DJ alias, Djuna Barnes) in the city's nightlife. At the age of 34, Gerhardt was diagnosed with breast cancer, receiving the all clear (and publishing her first, bestselling book) the year after. Gerhardt suffered a relapse in 2015 and, less than a week after her third book, Transfer Window, was published to unanimous critical acclaim and commercial success, she died on March 16th, 2017 (aged 39). Gerhardt left behind her wife and son.