Solvej Balle, born in 1962, made her debut in 1986 with the novel Lyrefugl, and went on to write the highly acclaimed According to the Law: Four Accounts of Mankind (praised by Publishers Weekly for its blend of “sly humor, bleak vision, and terrified sense of the absurd with a tacit intuition that the world has a meaning not yet fathomed”). She has also published a book on aesthetics, a political memoir, and two books of short prose. On the Calculation of Volume heralds the arrival of a major literary artist. Sophia Hersi Smith is a translator living in Copenhagen. Together with Jennifer Russell, she has translated fiction and poetry by Danish writers such as Tove Ditlevsen, Marianne Larsen, Olga Ravn, and Rakel Haslund-Gjerrild. Jennifer Russell is a translator living in Copenhagen. Together with Sophia Hersi Smith, she has translated fiction and poetry by Danish writers such as Tove Ditlevsen, Marianne Larsen, Olga Ravn, and Rakel Haslund-Gjerrild.