Erkan Özden - My Danish History

Drawing on his book "Små mænd med store hænder" (Small Men with Big Hands), Erkan Özden shares his personal story of growing up as the child of a guest worker.

The book spans three generations - his grandfather's, his father's, and his own - tracing a family narrative from a rural Turkish community to life as an academic in Copenhagen. It is a class journey within a single generation: a success story, but also an account of profound upheaval, pain, and loss. For the first generation born in Denmark, duality and inner conflict are constant companions - the feeling of never quite measuring up leaves its mark.

Erkan Özden has been a news anchor on TV Avisen since 2014 and is a former US correspondent and foreign reporter.