Literature Vietnamese-born Quynh Tran, who grew up in Pietarsaari and lives in Malmö, won the Runeberg Prize

Runeberg AwardEUR 20 000 has been granted Quynh Tranille from the first novel Skugga och svalka (Förlaget), which appeared last autumn Outi Mennan in Finnish as Shadow and coolness (Work).

The novel is “visual in its narrative, easily perceptive and linguistically rich,” the explanatory statement states. “It doesn’t show or give ready-made explanations, but allows the reader to create their own interpretations.”

Quynh Tran (b. 1989) grew up in Pietarsaari and now lives in Malmö. She studied at the Biskops Arnö School of Writing and works as a psychologist.

“This is a tremendous recognition,” Tran says by telephone from Malmö. “A prestigious award, and all types of fiction are included. A big amount of money too. ”

Tran moved from Pietarsaari to Lund more than ten years ago. The road from Lund to Malmö, and Skåne’s strange dialect has already become quite familiar.

In an award-winning novel the mother of a family with a Vietnamese background dreams of getting rich, while the son dreams of beautiful girls, as the jury describes. Alongside them grows a little brother, an observer, constantly on the outer edge of events, in the shadow.

You can see a little more detail from the side.

Step by step, the little brother progresses on his school path, enchanted by his own astonishing intellect. The three of them form their own small world in a small Finnish town in Ostrobothnia.

It took two years to write. The third was needed to improve the text.

“I was by no means forced to write,” Tran says. “But my life would have been poorer if I hadn’t written. And if you had to write something, it was this book and right now. ”

In the justification for the award, his novel is described as a photograph, “the lights and shadows and details of which are gradually drawn to the mind of the viewer”.

Style, language and aesthetics are important to Tran:

“At first I was looking for the right linguistic tone for a long time, or rather the right character I could be in.”

If and when one has to name a literary tradition to which the debutant feels to belong, the answer is modernism.

“Admittedly, I’m not quite sure what it all entails,” Tran says. “But I like pretty experimental novels. After all, I’m not quite from prose lyricism, which is already challenging in shape. ”

“If I mentioned one name, it is Virginia Woolf. I don’t know if I’m writing like him, but I’d like to know. ”

Award criteria by Shadow and coolness is a self – contained novel and a refreshing addition to Finnish literature: a toned and beautiful whole.

“Because I grew up in Ostrobothnia and the Swedish used there tones me, I am probably a Finnish-Swedish writer. At least such a definition is part of the truth. Or close to it. ”

I guess it would be best if you didn’t need grouping stamps at all?

“Yes, with stamps, everything gets hard.”

He understands Finnish well, but avoids speaking it because making mistakes is not tempting.

The career of a writer is set to continue.

“But you never know what’s going on,” Quynh Tran says. “I’m going to try anyway.”

In the year 1987 The award was shared by the City of Porvoo, the newspaper Uusimaa, the Finnish Writers ‘Association, the Finnish Reviewers’ Association and Finlands Svenska Författareförening.

The winner was chosen this year by a jury made up of the author Marja-Leena Tiainencritic Merja Leppälahti and a dissertation researcher in Nordic literature Hanna Lahdenperä.

First, last December, ten finalists for the award were nominated by a jury that included the author Johanna Hulkkocritic Vesa Rantama and a literary editor Camilla Lindberg. There were almost 300 new Finnish fiction books on offer: poetry, prose, essays.

You can read Vesa Rantama’s review of Tran’s work published in Helsingin Sanomat from here.

Last year, the recognition won Marisha Rasi-Koskinen with a novel Rec.