Ashes in the North

Title: Ashes in the North
Genre: Literary Fiction / Coming-of-Age / LGBTQ+ Historical Drama

Description:
Denmark, 1980s.
After losing both of his parents at a young age-and later his sister in the orphanage-Nikolaj learns early that survival means shutting down. Adopted at twelve, he finds stability in the home of two kind but watchful parents, who see more fragility in him than he'll ever admit. By seventeen, he's a rising star on the football field, his discipline and drive masking years of grief and silence.

But there are truths he cannot outrun. Truths about who he is, and who he longs for-his closest friend, Emil, whose openness and quiet strength make Nikolaj's own walls tremble. In a time and place where people rarely spoke of such things, Nikolaj wrestles with identity, masculinity, and the fear of breaking apart the family who chose him.

Ashes in the North is a story about loss, love, and the fragile courage it takes to step out of the shadows of survival and into the light of selfhood.