The God of Chance

Focuses on the relationship between Ana, a high-flying Danish career woman whose work is her life, and the young teenager Mariama. Ana first meets Mariama selling snacks on a beach in Gambia, and the girl gradually becomes a substitute for the family she never had. Ana brings Mariama to Europe to be educated; the girl finds the cultural shock and living with Ana intensely difficult, whilst Ana's obsession with her leads to her own carefully controlled life descending into chaos. The scene moves from colorful depictions of life in a luxury hotel in Africa, cheek by jowl with desperate poverty, to elite designer flats in Copenhagen, and finally the bustling multicultural community on the streets of London. "Culture shock, an intense fixation by the Danish woman toward her charge, the struggle for learning, and a dependence on chance all combine with rich imagery into a story about two women and their search for meaning."—World Literature Today, March/April 15