Open Sentence
Anne CAthrine Bomann
Alex is in her forties, a freelance science journalist who lives alone and has chosen not to have children. Her mother, a mathematician, spent Alex's entire childhood on the second floor of their house, absorbed in books, notebooks, and equations. Their relationship has long been marked by mutual criticism and emotional distance.
When her mother begins to show signs of dementia, Alex feels compelled to build a new relationship with the very person she has never felt fully loved by, yet has always longed for.
Structured around mathematical concepts – Event, Regression line, Isolated point, Existence proof, Open sentence – the novel mirrors the mother’s lifelong devotion to logic while exposing the limits of reason in matters of love.
Open Sentence is a tender and piercing novel about the fractured bond between an adult daughter and her disappearing mother – about what we remember, what we forget, and how love is not always enough.
ORIGINAL TITLE: Åbent udsagn
YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 2026
PUBLISHER: Lindhardt & Ringhof
PAGES: 189 pages
READING MATERIAL: Danish edition, English sample translation by Caroline Waight, Extended synopsis, Author letter
words on open sentence
“Loneliness and the difficulty of human connection are recurring themes in Anne Cathrine Bomann's work, and this new novel returns to those aspects of human psychology, delicately exploring the complex relationship between a mother and daughter. Her writing is elegant and deeply considered, drawing out the nuances of her characters with precision and tenderness.”
Caroline Waight, translator of Bomann’s work into English
“Anne Cathrine has a rare talent for speaking about existential themes in a light yet profound way that truly touches readers and resonates deeply. Her characters stay with you, and what she writes about always feels so human – so close to the struggles and philosophical and psychological questions many of us have.
I simply love her tone and the elegant, intelligent way she tells her stories – after just a few sentences, you already can’t put her books away.
I especially love how she depicts the relationship between mother and daughter and the changing dynamic caused by the mother’s illness and increasing forgetfulness. It deeply moved me how she shows that not everything we remember is necessarily accurate and how complex relationships can be.
The novel reflects beautifully on memory and what it means to lose it – not only for the person themselves, but also for the people who love them. ”
Alexandra Hummel, editor at hanserblau, Germany
“La Peuplade has published Anne Cathrine Bomann in French since Agathe and is very proud to have acquired the rights for Open Sentence. Continuing her insightful exploration of human psychology, the novelist uses mathematical language in this new novel to depict the touching and complex confrontation between an aging mother and her daughter, who has always felt neglected. Anne Cathrine Bomann has become a key author in our catalogue over the years, and we are delighted to introduce the French readers to this new work.”
Simon Philippe Turcot, Managing Director at La Peuplade, Canada
“Anne Cathrine treats her text with the utmost care. Every beginning and every full stop matters to her, and no word is left untouched. It is a privilege to work with a writer who knows where she is heading but still keeps an open and curious mind.”
Elisabeth Kiertzner, Bomann’s editor at Lindhardt & Ringhof
Rights sold
Denmark: Lindhardt & Ringhof
France (World rights): Éditions La Peuplade
Germany: hanserblau
Film/Tv rights
Available
reviews
“There is a clarity to the language, a lightness and beauty that balance the weight and darkness of the narrative, while human encounters and dialogue emerge with a sensory precision that lets them resonate in all their significance. Anne Cathrine Bomann makes room for doubt and ambivalence, allowing everything to exist side by side, as human life so rarely is simply black and white.
Open Sentence is a moving portrayal of difficult, contradictory love – a novel that surrenders to the vulnerability and pain of a complicated relationship, yet finds cracks of tenderness in the hard shell, where light breaks through in moments of release.”
KRISTELIGT DAGBLAD
“The internationally acclaimed Danish author and psychologist Anne Cathrine Bomann has written a small, delicate novel about a mother who pushes her daughter away. A relationship that is given new air when the mother falls ill. […] A mother who pushes her daughter away – and hits the reader straight in the solar plexus, because the relationship, or lack thereof, that Bomann evokes is so full of heart wrenching and subtle drama. […] It is described with tenderness and nuance, and as a reader – and fellow human being – you are gently made aware of relativity, of (blind) angles, and of the fact that memory is not an exact science. […] Open Sentence is a novel about forgetting and rediscovery, about mothers and daughters, about memory and women. […] The powerful, effective, and provocative question the novel ultimately poses to its reader is: Why have children if you do not intend to spend time with them?”
BERLINGSKE
“Bomann writes convincingly about a daughter with a strained relationship with her mother, who develops dementia. It is a story about being forced to build a new relationship with someone you have never quite felt fully loved by, yet have always longed for. […] a compelling insight into how relationships we consider natural and self-evident are made up of complex parts. […] both moving and deeply relevant.”
JYLLANDS-POSTEN
“well-written and often poetic novel.”
MALOU WEDEL BRUUN
“a powerful novel about close, difficult relationships.”
ANETTE LEONORA ANDERSEN
“a character-driven novel in a language few could master […] My heart wept several times throughout the novel. […] it stays with you.”
BOGFEBER
“complex relationships rendered with striking humanity and recognition”
BOGSULTEN
“In Open Sentence, Bomann confronts the difficult and lingers in the fractures where relationships begin to break, and where no final answers can be drawn. ”
BAGOMBOEGER
“There are books that seem quiet on the surface, yet continue to work within you. That was my experience with Open Sentence. Bomann has a remarkable eye for the small psychological shifts – how people understand themselves through the stories they tell, and how those stories sometimes prove more fragile than we thought. The language is calm and precise, with an understated intensity in the way the story unfolds. ”
GRO_MED_LITTERATUR
“The novel addresses deeply emotional themes […] Bomann is exceptionally skilled at bringing these relationships and emotions to life without throwing anyone under the bus. […] No judgment is passed; the relationship remains an open sentence. […] my warmest recommendations. ”
BOGBLOGGER.DK