Leif Panduro

Who was Leif Panduro?

Leif Thormod Panduro was a Danish writer, a novelist, short story writer and dramatist. A dentist by profession, he began in his thirties to write stories about people who can't conform to society's rules for one reason or another. Rend mig i traditionerne, from 1959 is about an adolescent who finally ends up in an asylum because he thinks society is mad. This novel was made into a film in 1979. Fern fra Danmark is about a man who wakes up in a hospital with amnesia but discovers more and more about a not very pleasant self.

Panduro's books and plays grew increasingly pessimistic about the orderly middle-class society and its senseless norms.

Panduro's books were and are still popular in Denmark. In 1970 he won the Danish booksellers prize De Gyldne Laurbær. Several of his novels were later made into films. His books are used in the Danish public schools. In 1971 he was awarded with the Grand Prize of the Danish Academy and five years later he became a member of the Danish Academy