A chilling story of the tyranny of time and the powerlessness of childhood. It is narrated by a young Peter, maybe and maybe not the author, an orphan who has been privileged to be transferred to an Experimental School. Occasionally it flashes forward to his indistinct present. Beautiful, beautiful language twisted with the pain of isolation and yearning for connection. I wish I could read Danish.

"The child had wanted attention. She had just asked to be noticed. But she was given an assessment. 'What a clever girl!'"

"It was everything, that kiss was everything. Everything you had dreamed of but never attained, and everything that, now, would never come to pass, because I was going away and was lost. All of that was in it.
"It got rid of time. I knew I would remember it for ever and ever and that they could not take it away from me, not ever -- come what may. And so that moment became one of utter fearlessness."

"I never wanted anything else. Nor have I, since then. Than to be allowed inside, and then to sit quietly with the woman and the child. That would have been enough."

(I saw some other books I've rated seven, came back and bumped this one up a couple of notches. It's not the sort of book you finish thinking you enjoyed it, but it is very fine writing indeed, despite the solipsism)