Mia Spangenberg talks about her translation of Pirkko Saisio’s The Red Book of Farewell with author and poet Trisha Low. This virtual event is hosted by Pilsen Community Books in Chicago.
This virtual event will be streamed on the Pilsen Community Books YouTube channel here(opens in a new tab).
Pirkko Saisio’s autofictional novel, in Mia Spangenberg’s tender translation from Finnish, is a mesmerizing account of radical politics and sexual awakening in a series of farewells—to her mother, to the idealism of youth, to friends and lovers, and finally to her grown daughter. The novel embeds readers in a delirious Finland, where art and communist politics are hopelessly intertwined, and where queer love, still a crime, thrives in underground bars. Playful and mysterious, The Red Book of Farewells stoically embraces the revolutionary potential of moving on.
This event is supported in part by FILI – Finnish Literature Exchange.
Mia Spangenberg translates from Finnish, Swedish, and German into English. Her work has been published in Finland and the UK, and appeared in journals such as LitHub and Asymptote. She holds a Ph.D. in Scandinavian studies from the University of Washington, Seattle, where she resides with her family.
Pirkko Saisio (b. 1949) studied drama and completed her actor’s training in 1975. Her debut novel The Course of Life (Elämänmeno, 1975) won the J. H. Erkko Award. Saisio has been nominated for the Finlandia Prize seven times, winning it in with The Red Book of Farewells (Punainen erokirja, 2003). She has, among other awards, received Aleksis Kivi Prize and State Literature Award. Apart from novels, she has written numerous plays and scripts for film and television and is a well-known theatre director.