Liv Duvå and Johanne Mygind: Toxic Welfare

Liv Duvå's novel 'Ned fra himlen' follows Maria, who has left her daughter's father and sought refuge with her aunt Janne, who runs a riding school for socially disadvantaged children in Brøndby Strand. The high-rises promise a life matching the view - but from them spreads a poison that seeps through people, sea and animals. The novel blends social realism with something ghostly, depicting a system that tries to offer municipal care but ends up squeezing its citizens in misguided compassion.

Johanne Mygind's 'Giftig' is a standalone sequel to the award-winning 'Kærlighedens år'. It begins with documentary filmmaker Nanna's journey to western Jutland, where her grandfather, as operations director at Cheminova in the 1950s, was behind Denmark's largest environmental disaster to date. It is a story about the cradle of the welfare state and about growth with toxic consequences - for the local community, for the grandparents' marriage and for Nanna's understanding of her own history.

The two authors meet for a moderated conversation with literature mediator Asger Malmmose Berndsen. The discussion centres on the poison seeping into buildings, relationships and groundwater, and on writing contemporary accounts and origin stories about the welfare society that has shaped us all.