3|2008CONTENTS
You can read some of Books from Finland here: click the links.
This’n’that
Kindle the world?; Jukka Koskelainen on
new poems by Tomi Kontio; Mervi Kantokorpi
on Petri Tamminen’s new novel; Soila
Lehtonen on the short prose of Kaarina
Valoaalto;
translation prize; erratum
Tomi Kontio
The sea so open
Poems from Delta (Teos, 2008), translated
by Herbert Lomas
The sea, the skin’s saltiness, memories light
as paper aeroplanes: the fifth collection of
poems by Tomi Kontio (born 1966) discusses
love and loss
Petri Tamminen
Extracts from the novel Mitä onni on (‘What happiness is’,
Otava, 2008), translated by Owen Witesman
A man gotta do what he gotta do: in a new
novel by Petri Tamminen (born 1966), a
middle-aged writer marches down memory
lane in pursuit of lost joie de vivre — but finds
that past happiness is irretrievable
Kaarina Valoaalto
A story from Avantgarderob ja muuta irtaimistoa (‘Avantgarderobe and other moveables’,
Tammi, 2008), translated by Lola Rogers
The days of moose-hunting may be over, but
a working dog’s work is never done. Kaarina
Valoaalto (born 1948) paints an endearing
portrait of an elderly reindeer shepherd,
mistress of the yard
 Markéta Hejkalová
An adventurer in history
Extracts from the book Mika Waltari the Finn (WSOY, 2008)
Mika Waltari (1908—1979)
became internationally
known in the 1950s, when his
historical novels
were translated into a
number of languages; The Egyptian (1945)
was transformed into a Hollywood movie in
1954. In these extracts from the new,
English-language book on Waltari by the
Czech translator and publisher Markéta
Hejkalová, the best-selling author’s world
and works are reappraised
Mika Waltari
The mistake
A short story (‘Erehdys’, 1956, WSOY),
translated by Lola Rogers
Mika Waltari himself characterised the
extensive historical novels that brought
him fame as ‘fairy tales for adults’; Waltari
also wrote fairy tales for children, as well as
plays, screenplays, thrillers, travelogues
and short stories. Set in post-war Naples,
this short story — published in English for
the first time — chronicles a humorous and
melancholy evening in the lives of two men
and a dog (there is a woman, too).
This is the 12th part in a series of
portraits of classic authors that began in
2005
Arno Rafael Minkkinen
Body of me
Extracts from text and
photographs from Suomen
kuvat. Homework. The
Finnish Photographs 1973—2008 (Like, 2008)
‘When I enter the image that I see in the
viewfinder, it is as if I am stepping into an
empty room’, writes Arno Rafael Minkkinen,
whose
highly original nude selfportraits
are set among trees and rocks,
in water and in snow
Jyrki Lehtola
Letting it all hang out
There was a time in Finland when even
the celebrities were humble and
ordinary. Jyrki Lehtola takes a
look at the rather different
nature of current public
discourse, the New
Woman and the blog
age in particular
 Timo Valjakka
The road less travelled
Londen, Magnus
& Enegren, Joakim
& Simons, Ant: Come to Finland. Posters
and travel tales 1851—1965
Heikki Hiilamo
More equal than others?
Järvinen, Katariina & Kolbe, Laura:
Luokkaretkellä hyvinvointivaltiossa.
Nykysukupolven kokemuksia tasa-arvosta
[On a journey through class
in a welfare society. A new generation’s
experience of equality]
Satu Gröndahl
Hirvonen, Vuokko: Voices from
Sápmi: Sámi Women’s Path to
Authorship
Sakari Laiho
A taste for reading
Sakari Laiho, director of the Finnish
Book Publishers’ Association, on the
state of the book market in what is,
comparatively speaking, a nation of
bookworms
Book statistics 2007
Select bibliography
Olli Jalonen
On writing and not writing
In this series, writers ponder the
difficulties of writing. Olli Jalonen,
the winner of the Finlandia Prize in
1990, wrote his latest novel, 14
solmua Greenwichiin (‘14 knots to
Greenwich’, 2008) over 19 years, on
and off; for him, the joy of the
sometimes painful process of
creating a piece of fiction lies in the
seeking and finding of meaning
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