Eva Tind at KFM

Eva Tind reads new biography of Gerhard Heilmann: Tuesday 27 October 2026, 18:30–19:30, BOGhandleren Aarhus Kristian F. Møller, Aarhus. Tickets cost 50 kr.

Author event with Eva Tind in conversation with editor Janne Breinholt Bak, presenting her new novel "The Man Who Got Wings".

The book is a biographical novel about the self-taught artist and ornithologist Gerhard Heilmann (1859-1946). As a child, he is drawn to the world of birds, and although he is expected to take over his family's pharmacy in Skælskør, he chooses instead to become an artist and royal porcelain painter. He draws all bird species for the major work "Danish Bird Life", illustrates banknotes for the National Bank, and represents Denmark at the World's Fair in Paris in 1900 alongside P.S. Krøyer and Vilhelm Hammershøi. In 1926, he provides the decisive proof of the origin of birds by drawing their ancestor.

While the outside world recognizes his groundbreaking research, he must fight for recognition in Denmark as a queer man in an era when homosexuality could lead to social ostracism. Together with his butler as life companion and three foster children, he creates an alternative family, balancing creativity, doubt, and indomitable will.

"The Man Who Got Wings" is about identity, heritage, and freedom - and about an extraordinary man who not only studied birds but tried to give both himself and the world wings.