Ane Barmen

Dad Almost Went to Woodstock

Theis lives alone and doesn’t really have any contact with anyone other than his dog Snuppa. But Snuppa is getting old and has to be put down, so, after several years of silence, Theis gets in touch with his daughter Ruby. Ruby is reluctant to have anything to do with her occasionally alcoholic father. She and her partner have also long been trying to have children together, without success, and a fresh encounter with her father only reminds her of everything that they haven’t achieved – any of them.

Dad Almost Went to Woodstock is a novel about how our upbringing shapes who we are, and about shame and forgiveness. It’s a story about a problematic father-daughter relationship, written with both bite and compassion, and with cutting and poignant observations about the motivations behind parenting and charity – which are not always selfless.