A Finnish Reading List

Posted by on . 4 comments.

I keep meaning to start my own, but in the meantime the Guardian compiled a list which seems pretty good with good shortcuts too. Personally I’m still waiting for an english language biography of Kekkonen which would have some great stories as well as profile a very interesting and key cold war politician.

Update: Georg blogged this entry and following a short conversation we are trying to do some joint reading, I’ve copied his starting list below which I pretty much agree with. Would anyone else like to give it a go?

* Johanna Sinisalo – Not Before Sundown

* Mikael Niemi – Popular Music from Vittula

* Leena Krohn – Tainaron, Dona Quixote and Other Writings

* Mikko Rimminen – Pussikaljaromaani

Filed under: Books

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Comments

  1. leaf says:
    18 Feb 08 at 3:57 am

    can you recommend a book, a novel set in helsinki? im an architecture student and for an urban studies module, i need to do a book review relating to a city. any book, set in, about, mildly involving, the city.. i love helsinki and am coming back in april, so maybe something you could recommend would be perfect.
    kiitos

  2. lewism says:
    18 Feb 08 at 3:45 pm

    @Leaf,
    Hello, I have covered a few books that are set in Helsinki, a couple I can think of are;
    Not Before Sundown by Johanna Sinisalo
    The Priest of Evil by Matti Jouensuu
    Both are novels firmly set in Helsinki. In this post check out the guardian list its pretty good and the links at the end are worth researching.
    Maybe also…
    The Winter Book by Tove Jansson but I haven’t read it so I don’t know how much any of the short stories are set in Helsinki. This would probably be the best written though.
    Of the ones I’ve mentioned above and have read I would think The Priest of evil would be the best fit as it
    really is firmly rooted in Helsinki the way the Rebus series by Ian Rankin is set in Edinburgh or Morse in Cambridge for example. Also it covers quite well in my estimation the psychogeography of Helsinki, and some few Finnish bugbears like a crazed bomber. We had a shooting and a bomber in Finland which are the two most talked about crimes here at the moment. Maybe you should read The winter book too. It will provide some contrast, and you will get two different views of Helsinki I think. I’ll post you if I think/find anything else.

  1. in and out of Helsinki says:
    24 Apr 06 at 11:05 pm

    All You Need: Finish Literature, Sweet Food, a Restaurenat Guide and More Blogs

    Today

  2. in and out of Helsinki says:
    25 Apr 06 at 10:21 pm

    Let’s Start the Summer Season with some Finish Literature: Johanna Sinisalo – Not before Sunset

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# Anonymous says:

Posted on May 17th, 2012, 12:24