Book
The red book of farewells
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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 auto fictional 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.
- Language
- English, Finnish
- Publisher
- Penguin Classics
- ISBN
- 9780241730119