Prestigious Finlandia Prize goes to Rosa Liksom

It is that time of year again, with a new annual prize being awarded in some field on an almost daily basis.
      On Thursday it was the turn of the Finlandia Prize, Finland’s most coveted literary award for fiction. The accolade has gone to Rosa Liksom for her novel Hytti nro 6 (”Compartment No. 6”).
      The prize-winning novel, set in 1986, depicts a Finnish girl who finds herself sharing a train compartment with a macho Russian man on the Trans-Siberian Express. The story develops into an autopsy of the Soviet Union.
      ”Through seemingly isolated and random impressions, Liksom always hits the very centre of the target”, says theatre and film director Pekka Milonoff, who selected the winner from a short-list of six works.
     
”Liksom is a master of controlled exaggeration. With a couple of carefully chosen brushstrokes, a mini-story, she is able to conjure up an entire human destiny”, Milonoff adds.
      This year’s Finlandia winner receives a cheque for EUR 30,000 from the Finnish Book Foundation.
      The first Finlandia Prize was awarded to author Erno Paasilinna in 1984.
      In 2010, the Finlandia Prize went to Mikko Rimminen for his novel Nenäpäivä (”Nose Day”).
     
This year’s other candidates (all written by women) were Eeva-Kaarina Aronen’s Kallorumpu (”Skull Drum”), Kristina Carlson’s William N. päiväkirja (”The Diary of William N.”), Laura Gustafsson’s Huorasatu (”The Whore Story”), Laila Hirvisaari’s Minä, Katariina (”I, Catherine”), and Jenni Linturi’s Isänmaan tähden (”For the Fatherland”).
     
Rosa Liksom, the pseudonym of Anni Ylävaara, was born in 1958, and published her debut novel Yhden yön pysäkki (”One Night Stand”) in 1985. Hytti nro 6 is her 16th book.
      This was Liksom’s first nomination as a Finlandia Prize candidate.
      Liksom is also known as a visual artist.
     
     
We will return to this subject in our weeklies next week


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finlandia Prize goes to Sofi Oksanen and portrait of Estonia under Soviet occupation (5.12.2008)
  All Finlandia Prize nominees are women (11.11.2011)
  Finlandia Prize goes to Mikko Rimminen (3.12.2010)

Links:
  Finlandia Prize (Wikipedia)
  Rosa Liksom website