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Editorial: Of voles and men

This'n'that
Anselm Hollo on new poems by Tomi Kontio; Herbert Lomas on Hannele Huovi's fables for children; Jarmo Papinniemi on a new novel by Leena Lander; the novel in the European Union (from a Hungarian viewpoint); Tammi's 'Yellow Library' celebrates its 50th birthday; Raija Siekkinen in memoriam

Tomi Kontio
Daring to dream
Poems from Vaaksan päässä taivaasta ('A span away from heaven', Teos, 2004), translated by Anselm Hollo
In his fourth collection of poems Tomi Kontio (born 1966) visits the landscapes of his suburban youth, telling stories of people, sadness and love

Hannele Huovi & Kirsi Neuvonen
Animal crackers
Fables for children from Gepardi katsoo peiliin ('A cheetah looks into the looking-glass', Tammi, 2003), illustrated by Kirsi Neuvonen. Translation by Herbert Lomas
Falling in love with a jeep? Changing the colour of your skin so it matches the Director's pinstripes? Hannele Huovi (born 1949) tells tales of animals – but aren't they all human under the skin?

Soila Lehtonen
Lipstick memories
Hannu Väisänen, a graphic artist and colourist painter, delves into the 1950s in his first novel. An apparently bleak childhood in a small, grey post-war northern town, in the poor family of five children and their single-parent, sergeant-major father is reborn as a tragicomic collection of stories – and the life of little Antero, in this semi-autobiographical novel, is by no means a colourless one. An interview with Hannu Väisänen

Hannu Väisänen
Daddy dear
Extracts from the novel Vanikan palat ('Pieces of crispbread', Otava, 2004), translated by Hildi Hawkins
Dad adores poetry and licquor, and his sons know painfully well that the NCO's mess is a place where a horrible mixture of both is inevitable – and Dad's attempt at finding a stepmother results in a seemingly endless succession of candidates. But for little Antero school turns out to be a place where he finds out what life really is about: art. Hannu Väisänen's novel paints rich portraits and landscapes of both mind and places

Leena Lander
Wolf-eye
Extracts from the novel Käsky ('Command', WSOY, 2003), translated by David Hackston
In spring 1918, after Finland gained independence, impoverished 'Red' members of the working class rose up in arms and the 'Whites' – with -German help – put down the rebellion. In this extract from a new novel by Leena Lander (born 1956), a German-trained 'White' Jäger is charged with transporting a Red woman prisoner to be judged. Lander casts light on the motives behind the actions of her characters; discarding stereotypes, she seeks the human factors behind the commands

Anu Tuominen
The art of homemaking
Artwork from Ars Fennica 2003. Anu Tuominen (edited by Kirsti Karvonen and Sari Romppanen; LIKE, 2003). Introduction translated by Jüri Kokkonen
Anu Tuominen (born 1961), the winner of the 2003 Ars Fennica prize, is interested in organising forgotten things – worn-out pencils, old postcards, broken crockery and cutlery; she is also hooked on crocheting. In an extract from Ars Fennica 2003. Anu Tuominen Pessi Rautio explores transformations wrought on Tuominen's unlikely subject matter

Kristiina Rikman
Serial monogamy
A person who spends much of his or her life with translating the work of many different writers is promiscuous, writes Kristiina Rikman (born 1947), whose renderings into Finnish include works by John Irving and Philip Roth.
This is the second article in a series in which literary translators from English into Finnish write about their work

Reviews

Jyrki Räikkä
Fresh air and flowers?
Pekka Lähteenkorva & Jussi Pekkarinen: Ikuisen poudan maa. Virallinen Suomi-kuva 1918-1945 [Land of eternal clear blue skies. The official -image of Finland 1918-1945]

Pekka Tarkka
Business and pleasure
Kai Häggman: Avarammille aloille, väljemmille vesille. Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiö 1940-2003 [To broader horizons, wider waters. Werner Söderström Publishing Company 1940-2003]

New translations

Select bibliography

Letter from a forgotten war
For the writer Asko Sahlberg (born 1964), the world is made of words.
He sends a report from the world of his fifth novel, currently under work, which is set in the civil war of 1918
 
 
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