Backlight

'A Finnish masterpiece of autofiction... a dreamy, complex and therefore so very human portrait of the formation of a great artist' Financial Times 
 
A riveting, funny coming-of-age story: the second volume in Pirkko Saisio's award-winning Helsinki trilogy 
 
Teenaged Pirkko can’t decide which she hates most: God, her communist father, or her growing breasts. Grandpa has moved into the room long promised to her, and Mother, overworked and distant, tries to keep the peace between her headstrong daughter and husband. It's 1960s Finland and Pirkko has fun getting into trouble. That is, until her teacher suggests she might have what it takes to be a real writer. Then the historic summer of 1968 arrives, which Pirkko spends working at a Swiss orphanage where no one understands her and, as much as her family drive her mad, she’s homesick for the first time. 
 
As the world shifts and swirls around her, Pirkko must make sense of it all – including her own sexual identity. A funny, unique coming-of-age story and an intimate portrait of a life lived in language, Backlight is the second volume in Pirkko Saisio's award-winning Helsinki trilogy.

A Finnish masterpiece of autofiction... Saisio's Helsinki trilogy is a dreamy, complex and therefore so very human portrait of the formation of a great artist

Entirely irreverent, witty and impressionistic. Saisio's gift is to render this autobiographical history as freshly as if it happened yesterday ... a seminal work of Nordic artistry

This is both family history and contemporary political history, sexual self-discovery and artist biography… moving and clever, funny and beautiful

NZZ am Sonntag, Best Books of the Century

Long an object of study in Finland, Saisio’s work is beginning to gain more global recognition now, cementing her place in the canon of autofiction that also includes the Nordic writers Karl Ove Knausgaard and Tove Ditlevsen

Lowest Common Denominator

'A Finnish masterpiece of autofiction... a dreamy, complex and therefore so very human portrait of the formation of a great artist' Financial Times 
 
'Playful and profound... a captivating glimpse into twentieth-century Finland through the eyes of a charismatic child narrator' Fiona Mozley 
 
‘Grandma made me take lots of naps. She believed sleep was the most important thing in the world for children. And that adults should be allowed to drink their afternoon coffee in peace.’ 
 
In this charming patchwork of fever dreams and memories, Pirkko Saisio transports us to the 1950s Finland of her youth, where she navigates life as an only child of communist parents. Convinced she will grow up to become a man, a young Pirkko keeps trying and failing to meet the expectations of the adults around her. But as she discovers that she can be the narrator of her own story, it is in language that she finds a refuge and a way to be seen at last. 
 
In a world where mascara-streaked mermaids dodge tennis balls, a beloved green cap is stolen by the Big Bad Wolf, and the first tugs of infatuation are inspired by a swimsuit-clad circus announcer, Saisio captures the heart-wrenching intensity of childhood as it floods back in the wake of her father’s death. 
 
Deeply moving and disarmingly funny, Lowest Common Denominator is the first volume in a trilogy that has been celebrated in Finland as the best work of the century.

Declarative, deadpan, very funny... an uninhibited portrait of a queer woman's childhood in all its contradictory desires

Playful... The voice is as charming as any good child narrative is... Her childhood is typically universal, typically unique... A bestseller in Finland. You can see why

Droll, sardonic... A piquant account of a childhood and a time... Saisio sketches a poignant, funny-sad picture of a communist family in Cold War Finland. In both substance and style, comparisons with Ali Smith may come to mind

A brilliant book, half modernist poem and half classic comic of age novel. For anyone who ever became a writer

Playful and profound, Lowest Common Denominator offers a captivating glimpse into twentieth-century Finland through the eyes of a charismatic child narrator. I loved it

One of Finland's greatest living authors... Lowest Common Denominator, elegantly translated by Mia Spangenberg, is the first of her works to be published in English and the first in her Helsinki trilogy, which is in the peculiarly bleak Scandinavian tradition of autofiction

If you love Deborah Levy, you'll adore Pirkko Saisio

Saisio gives us a humorous and empathetic account of the challenge of coming to terms with the world we are born into. It’s a world animated by the distances between generations, shimmering with the individuality of parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Sensual, curious, imaginative and funny, Saisio reminds us that being someone’s child can be a deeply queer experience

Pirkko Saisio (Author) 
Pirkko Saisio (born 1949) is one of Finland’s most celebrated writers as well as an actor and theatre director. The author of numerous novels, plays and scripts for film and television, Saisio has been nominated for the Finlandia Prize seven times, winning it in 2003. She has, among other awards, received the Aleksis Kivi Prize and the State Literature Award. Lowest Common Denominator is the first volume in her Helsinki trilogy, followed by Backlight and The Red Book of Farewells. 
 
Mia Spangenberg (Translator) 
Mia Spangenberg translates from Finnish, Swedish and German. She is the winner of the Nadia Christensen Prize for her translation of Lowest Common Denominator.

‘Grandpa says everyone should leave me alone. If I want to be a boy, then I’m a boy: simple as that.’Writing in the wake of her father’s death, the narrator of Pirkko Saisio’s autofictional novel transports us to the 1950s Finland of her youth, where she navigates life as an only child of communist parents. Convinced she will grow up to become a man, a young Pirkko keeps trying and failing to meet the expectations of the adults around her. 
 
With wit and style, Saisio captures the heart-wrenching intensity of childhood feeling, merging fever dreams with sensory-laden memories as each formative experience – with the Big Bad Wolf, a bikini-clad circus announcer, and Jesus Christ himself – drives her further and further from her family and others. Struggling to understand her place in the world around her, it’s in language that she discovers a refuge and a way to be seen at last. 
 
An unforgettable story of transformation, Lowest Common Denominator is the first volume in a trilogy that has been celebrated in Finland as the best work of the century.

Pirkko Saisio

Mia Spangenberg

There’s a nimble and fluid quality to the prose that makes the book deeply pleasurable to read. Plaudits are due here to the translator, Mia Spangenberg

This is a story with a sense of both the ridiculous and the serious. Told in clear prose, it playfully shifts between third and first person as Saisio recounts her memories then analyses them. This enchanting series deserves to become a modern classic

‘This is where she would like to belong, here in the kingdom of women, where words are sharp but gazes are soft.’ 
 
In 1970s Helsinki, a revolutionary storm is blowing through Pirkko Saisio’s university. She has moved out of her family home, joined a communist theatre, and fallen in love for the first time. Her newly shaved head looks unmistakably modern, and Bertold Brecht lives on her windowsill to profess God-like words of wisdom. 
 
Playful, moving and original, this autofictional coming-of-age story embeds the reader in a world where art and activism are irrevocably intertwined, and where queer love, still a crime, thrives in underground bars. 
In her mesmerizing account of radical politics and sexual awakening, Pirkko Saisio offers a series of farewells, to her mother, to the idealism of youth, to friends and lovers and finally to her grown daughter. The grand finale of the award-winning Helsinki trilogy, The Red Book of Farewells embraces the revolutionary potential of moving on.

Pirkko Saisio

Praise for The Red Book of Farewells

There’s a nimble and fluid quality to the prose that makes the book deeply pleasurable to read. Plaudits are due here to the translator, Mia Spangenberg

This is a story with a sense of both the ridiculous and the serious. Told in clear prose, it playfully shifts between third and first person as Saisio recounts her memories then analyses them. This enchanting series ...

Books by Pirkko Saisio

Series by Pirkko Saisio

Penguin International Writers16 Books

The Helsinki Trilogy1 Book

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