The Danish Expedition

The much-awaited third novel by Finlandia Prize-nominee and author of The Union of Synchonrised Swimmers, Cristina Sandu.

Nicaragua, 1923: A group of Danish emigrants embark on foot with their mules in the pouring rain on a trip across the mountains and the jungle to their promised land, Río Blanco, where they hope to grow coffee and make a better life for themselves. But the soil proves impossible to cultivate, and with the sudden death of the Nicaraguan president, the community’s support from the state comes to an end. The colony’s founders walk off with the collective funds to build their own business, leaving a strained atmosphere behind. Mere months later, treachery, revenge, hunger, disease, and death have destroyed the community’s dream and, for some, the colony experiment ends up in tragedy.

The Danish community’s paths continue crossing throughout a civil war and World War II, spanning across decades and generations. Carefully drawn portraits of the families and their journeys tell a story of belonging, cultural ties, broken dreams, and the continued hope of finding a place to settle, told with Sandu’s distinctive powerful language wielded with a light touch.

 

AUTHOR’S NOTE: In 2020, my husband and I spent six months in his home country of Nicaragua, which is where I first heard about a Danish colony in the north of the country. It had been established in 1923 on the invitation of the then president, President Diego Manuel Chamorro Bolaños, who had promised the Danes land on the proviso they cultivate coffee. This novel is a fictional rendering of the Danes’ history in Nicaragua and what happened to them over the course of the 20th century.