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Gr 10 Up—This fictionalization of the tragic life of Niels Nelson, 15, who was executed for arson and murder in Denmark in 1853, is startlingly grim. Before being convicted of murder and sentenced to death, Niels lives a marginal existence with his homeless and ailing father. When authorities drag Dad to a poorhouse, he urges Niels to run—so he does. But survival is even tougher alone, leading ...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

This relentlessly bleak Danish import imagines the last day of a real-life execution victim, the last (in 1853) to suffer that fate in the town of Svendborg, Denmark. Various townspeople cross his path-the messenger who posts the execution notices for the public event, the priest charged with extracting a final confession, the carpenter who measures him for a coffin-and their unsettled observations are brief windows into the world that led the fifteen-year-old boy to his crime (...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

This bleak Danish import imagines the last day of a real-life execution victim in 1853 Svendborg, Denmark. The observations of various townspeople...Log In or Sign Up to Read More