On the Other Side Is March

This is a new book. Condition: Brand New.

A poignant and darkly witty portrait of aging, memory, and multigenerational caretaking from the first female Faroese writer to ever appear in English.

I'm a woman in my early sixties. Somewhere between late and never. No longer the career woman, mother, housewife, and lover doing it all... Now I'm wife, mother, grandmother and my mother's mother. But I still have to satisfy all the demands placed on me.

So begins Solrun Michelsen's tender and darkly witty exploration of what she considers to be the strange, remaining leg of life's journey. Her kids are grown and out of the house and she's faced with a time that, for years, she always seemed to be looking toward - a time when she wasn't needed by somebody or something. But now, with her mother's declining health, she finds herself revisiting childhood scenes, family hymns, and folk songs - revealing a lifetime of love, duty, awe, and regret. She tends to her mother amid the stark rhythms of Faroese life, waiting for a new nursing home that never arrives, and confronts the reality of being part of the 'army of women' who inherit care. In her grief and private goodbye to her mother, however, is also a gorgeous meditation about life, as translator Marita Thomsen says in her afterword, 'in its ragged mundane glory'.

A lyrical portrait of caretaking and the invisible labour of motherhood, On the Other Side Is March is a tribute to caretakers across generational lines, as well as the rich oral traditions of singing and storytelling that kept the Faroese language alive centuries before its standard written form.

This is the first work of Michelsen's - a best-selling author of novels, short stories, poetry, and children's literature - to be published in English.

'A spare yet powerful meditation on mortality...The novel unfolds primarily as a series of vivid images that contain the narrator's wistful memories and recognition of the passage of time. There is a lovely economy to Michelsen's writing, which allows the lyrical impressions to resonate.' - Publishers Weekly

'Elegiac...With poignant grace, Michelsen examines life and death through the most elemental bond between mother and child.' - Booklist, starred review

'A moving and honest portrayal of familial love and dependency.' - Kirkus Reviews

'Set in a small, sparsely populated part of the world, Michelsen's quiet book raises universal themes.' - Library Journal

Book details and technical specifications

Format: Paperback / softback
ISBN13: 9798893380491
Published: July 2026

Number of pages: 121
Width: 133 mm
Height: 203 mm
Depth: not specified

Publisher: Transit Books