A novel about the madness of love and war, a portrait of a woman who rebels against her inherited convictions. Kirsten Thorup has received the Critics' Prize, the Grand Prize of the Danish Academy and the Nordic Council's Literature Prize.

Autumn 1942. A crowded train crosses dark Germany. On board is Harriet, who is heading to Munich after leaving her two small children in an orphanage in her native Denmark. Her husband, Gerhard, has been shot down on the Eastern Front, where he was fighting against communism on the German side. Deep in mourning, Harriet is burning to act, to contribute her grain of sand to the cause, to participate in the war. In Munich, Harriet is hosted by some old acquaintances of her husband, the Frankes, a couple formed by Klaus, an aviation officer in the Luftwaffe, and Gudrun, his Danish wife. The couple belong to the upper class, and while the war on the front intensifies, in their magnificent villa they continue to host sumptuous banquets where they rub shoulders with the cream of Nazi society. However, behind the scenes of the elegant salons and especially in the basement that houses the villa's Ukrainian maids, the true face of horror takes over.

A formidable description of the daily life of women during one of the darkest historical periods in European history, Until Madness, Until Death is the stark portrait of a woman caught between the desire to remain loyal to the convictions of her late husband and the moral obligation to rebel against the infamy taking place before her eyes.