Danish / Denmark
Ella er mit navn vil du købe det?
(Ella is my name do you want to buy it?)
Hegnhøj, Mette
(text/illus.)
[København]: Jensen & Dalgaard, 2014. – 139 loose folios in a box + alphabet paper confetti
ISBN 978-87-7151-078-2
Cat | Typewriter | Antiquarian book shop | Loss | Loneliness
Reading age: 10+
White Ravens issue: 2015
A rubber band wraps around a cardboard box that reads: “Handle with care – contains poet snow”. Once opened, punched confetti falls out of the box, in which one finds a stack of loose paper, on which Ella’s story is printed in typewriter’s font. This format gives the text something tentative; it also seems one holds something very private in ones hands. The reader experiences the same thrill as Ella, for her story is about the good fortune of receiving an unexpected gift. But she also describes the sadness of losing it again. For nine days, Ella had a cat, then it disappeared – she does not know what happened to it. Only the cat photos that she “draws” with the typewriter typeface remain. Her sadness, her speculations, and her helplessness clothe Ella in empty words and bleak phrases which seem to hide the fact that the loss of the cat means much more than it seems at first.