Literature and Fiction · Hardback

I Love Sun

Norwegian title: Jeg elsker sol

Päivi Laakso

In short, sharp images the writer draws up the image of a childhood in the north of Finland; a childhood closely connected to family, the landscape and the animals. Wild, burlesque and with great humour the writer tells what feels authentically Finnish.

If I was a kangaroo. I could have been a gipsy or a sami. I want to be a nun and travel to Africa. There I can live with the black natives in the rain forest, swim all year round and play with monkeys. I draw gipsy girls with black or red curls and with blue, brown or green eyes. I fill a sheat of paper with girls from Africa, America and China. Mother and Father had plans to move to Australia. Father had second thoughts at the last minute. We stayed at home in Halmetie 2 in Palosaari, Tornio.

I Love Sun is Päivi Laaksos literary debut, and it consists of short stories about a childhood in the north of Finland, characterized by unsentimental and direct persons shaped by inhospitable nature.

"Risky in form, but as a whole a nice and different read." AFTENPOSTEN "Laaksos stories make up a liberating and different edition to contemporary literature, dominated by the story about the fragmented family." DAGSAVISEN "A good debut that stays grounded in both shape and content." DAGBLADET