Danish / Denmark
Lillefingeren
(The little finger)
Wung-Sung, Jesper
(text)
Dickmeiss, Otto
(illus.)
København: Høst & Søn, 2017. – 90 p.
ISBN 978-87-638-4648-6
Sacrifice | Brother | Journey | Picture book
Reading age: 12+
White Ravens issue: 2017
The little finger is gone. His hand wrapped in a blood-stained T-shirt, Finn is standing in the middle of his sick brother Arne’s room. Although Arne can hardly get up, he sets off with Finn in search of Finn’s pinkie. On their way, the two brothers meet more or less bizarre people, and Arne slowly forgets that he is sick. What they don’t find, however, is the finger. It lies at home. Finn cut if off himself to save his brother. Jesper Wung-Sung tackles similar topics as in his former books “Skolen” or “Ud med Knud”: The main question is what kind of sacrifices one can, should, or must make during a lifetime. “Lillefingeren” is reminiscent of biblical texts, of Nikolai Gogol, and of Janne Teller. It is anything but a run-of-the-mill book, not least due to the drawings by Otto Dickmeiss. Their wealth of detail is reminiscent of medieval Vanitas paintings or art by Expressionist painters such as Otto Dix. They emphasise surreal and absurd things, but at the same time create and reflect on an existential dimension.