*** THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE IN DANISH ONLY ***

Finn is at a crossroad in life. He is in his sixties and his wife for more than 30 years has died from cancer and he has sold his Psychology Clinic. To get through his grief of losing his beloved wife he involves himself in a research project that takes him on a wide-range  journey – at least on paper – and into the heart of his soul.

During High School Finn was introduced to the American poet Walt Whitman. He experienced an almost physical transformation while reading I Sing the Body Electric, one of Whitman’s most famous poems. He felt connected with his powerful and yet calming praise of the body, nature and community, and above all the poet’s repeatedly emphasis on the existence of the soul, the influence by the soul on interpersonal relationships and the otherworldly.

A visit to a Literary Festival arouses his memories about Whitman, and the now mature and experienced psychologist decides to get to the bottom of the case: Who was this man, who was able to awaken Finn’s innermost feelings?

During his research Finn encounters the British author and widow Anne Gilchrist who travels to America with her three children to meet the subject of her desire: Whitman. He is fascinated by Gilchrist’s strength and passion but at the same time he is intrigued by the fact that she offers to marry him even before she leaves England. Throughout his research a lot of issues are raised, from Gilchrist’s contemporary eighteen hundred  prudish environment as well as from Finn himself: Was Gilchrist possessed? Was she insane? Did she sell her soul? Was she a fallen woman?

The story is a sore point for Finn but it is only after his wife dies that he really decides to explore the substance of Gilchrist’s passion. What actually happened when Gilchrist passionately fell in love with Whitman at the end of the 19th century – across the Atlantic Ocean and directly against the prudish moral of the Victorian era?