The winner will be announced by Jorma Uotinen on November 29.
This one Finlandia nominees for fiction of the year have been announced.
The candidates were chosen by a committee chaired by a reading district activist and blogger Kirsi Rani and a film producer as members Ilkka Matila and bookseller, gallerist Eira Sillanpää.
On Thursday morning, at the announcement of the candidates, Kirsi Ranin, the chairman of the committee, told about the trio’s reading work and how this year’s fiction award looked in their eyes.
According to Ranin, what stood out in particular was how many novels featured descriptions of mental illness this year. There were dozens of such novels. “Hard reading on both an individual and societal level,” Ranin characterized.
Another emerging feature in the novels was the extensive treatment of the war and the fact that the novels about the war are no longer contemporary stories, but now more and more young people are writing about the social aspects of the war.
In addition to mental illness and war, the novels dealt with a lot of “mazes of relationships”, as Ranin characterized.
Finlandia winner declares the professor, the artist Jorma Uotinen November 29.
“Extremely happy thing and exciting. Arousing great interest”, Uotinen described his mood at the announcement event.
Uotinen still also dreaded his great responsibility and the limited time, only about 20 days, to familiarize himself with the novels. He described himself as a slow reader who needs to be made to go back through novels to check things.
“It’s great that you can make such a choice, and completely on your own,” Uotinen raved. He had familiarized himself with some of the novels even before he found out about the candidates.
Among the works submitted by the publishers to the competition, the jury selected these six above the others:
■ Laura Gustafsson: Nothing really disappears. Like. 263 pp.
Panel: ”Nothing really disappears is a frenzied, sometimes even hilarious story from the edge of a world gone wrong. The interweaving of cold, creepy facts and skillful narration ponders how to act when nothing seems to be changing for the better, at least in terms of deteriorating power production and animal rights. The work manages to startle and influence on many levels thanks to its literary strength.”
HS: “The story was built into a strong fiction when Gustafsson decided to use carnivalesque anger as his tool. The main character of his novel is a frustrated professional activist who hates his peers who participate in “mass murder”. The second main character of the novel is the dog Epikuros, who lives next door to the animal activist. Therefore, Gustafsson had to solve an even bigger problem: how to tell the animal? Is that even possible? It’s a big philosophical question that hardly anyone knows the answer to.” Susanna Laari, HS 12.3.
■ Antti Hurskainen: Suntio. Bridge. 282 pp.
Panel: “Faith, hope and love are strong themes of Christian doctrine, which are rarely brought up in contemporary literature. The work dares to grasp them and questions the Lutheran church’s bureaucratic relationship with faith. The work is an exceptionally passionate story about the absoluteness of one person’s faith, which can also be seen in everyday actions. Suntion the language is as precise as the main character’s thinking.”
HS: “The humor and pop culture analysis of the previous books is now gone. Here too, Christer Kihlman, Paavo Rintala, Antti Hyry and other favorites canonized by Hurskainen in his previous texts are quoted. But if Hurskainen has long seemed like a fan boy thumbing his nose in the shadow of totemic male writers, he seems in Suntio, that you can still reach the level of your role models in the weight of the prose. An intellectually stimulating novel that exudes negativity.” Sakri Pölönen, HS 25.3.
■ Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen: Anatomy of the deaf hide. Athena. 575 pp.
Panel: ”Anatomy of the ear canal is a memorable growth story of an extraordinary protagonist. At the same time, it more broadly describes the rebellion of the youth against the system and how the revolution might eat its children. The work successfully deals with the many forms of sexuality and the meaning of an approving gaze. Anatomy of the ear canal at the core is a mystery, the solution of which takes the reader into a magical and unique world.”
HS: “The actual book of changes. In particular, gender boundaries are tested: M first hatches into a tomboy Mara, then a self-conscious high school princess and the carefree hedonist Mymmeli of the Keskuspuisto ice cream club. In a good wild and dangerous way In the anatomy of the eardrum has ingredients for a cult book.” Jani Saxell, HS 7.10.
■ Sirpa Kähkönen: 36 urns – The history of being wrong. Bridge. 267 pp.
Panel: “Sirpa Kähkönen’s strong, open-minded narrator’s voice builds a bridge across the gap between generations. In this powerful work, the burdens and wounds of the past are intertwined with the turning points of history. 36 urns is a novel spanning one night or alternatively an entire century, skillfully held together by a frame of objects. Even in a harsh world, there is beauty and gentleness when you look at the work through compassionate glasses.”
HS: “I think I’m holding one of the most touching books of autumn in my hands. The topic is familiar, but the handling is shocking. The daughter’s letter is a rush of emotions, it flows like a prose poem unleashed. Passionate and honest. I read all this voraciously, sometimes with a tear in the corner of my eye.” Helena Ruuska, HS 12.9.
■ Miki Liukkonen: Guest space. WSOY. 554 pp.
Panel: ”Guest mode is the verbal spin of an accurate observer. The world of the main character of the work bursts with sensory stimuli, surprising events and characters that randomly appear. The text flows from details to the universe and from the concrete to delusions. The work is a fragmented cornucopia, in which outsiders, the longing for love, the shaking of the mind and deep humanity are described with masterful brilliance.”
HS: “Liukkonen’s literary program has come to an end. What kind of departure has he arranged for us? Hierthy in tone, excellent in quality. Guest mode includes self-destruction, roguelike story, psychedelic thriller, essay-like reflection, eye-rolling tricks. The book contains clear and consciously obscure thoughts, obscure actions clearly told.” Herman Raivio, HS 18.9.
■ Iida Turpeinen: Living things. S&S.
Panel: “Man’s relationship with nature and other animal species, and the utilization of animals as raw material for human society is a central theme in today’s ethical and philosophical discussion. Living things deals with the theme in an exciting way by connecting the history of science in several different time scales through finely narrated characters. Living things makes an unknown piece of nature so alive that the reader wants to go to the museum and breathe the same air as the skeleton.”
HS: “The debut work focusing on one manatee and the people associated with it in three different centuries brings to the reader’s skin the ecological upheaval and collapse of the entire earth. On the basis of his obviously huge background material, Turpeinen carves precise attacks on the most essential twists of his characters. Except information Living things offers the art of omission, and the debutant’s own voice is largely born out of that as well. His work, which draws on science, can be read with emotion and with bated breath.” Antti Majander, HS 4.9.
Finnish Book Foundation awarded the recognition since 1984, won last year Iida Rauma with a novel Disposal – Case report (Bridge). In 1993, the rules were changed so that only novels are eligible for the competition.
The winner will receive 30,000 euros.
The Finlandia nominees for non-fiction were announced on Tuesday, and Children’s and Youth Literature’s turn came on Wednesday.
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