In this episode, author Tua Harno explores the secret world of spies, the cold war era, and shady business trades as she talks about her latest novel Cold War Affairs together with her agent Leenastiina Kakko.
Cold War Affairs (in Finnish Kylmän sodan tytär) is an intriguing and pacy thriller about cold war politics, shady affairs, and espionage. Partly set in Helsinki during the 1980s, narrated by a CIA agent Edward who lives a double life in Finland as an American businessman and family father. The other parts of the novel take place three decades later in 2017, narrated by both the spy’s daughter Mari who discovers the truth about her father, and by Edward himself who is still working for the CIA in the United States.
Cold War Affairs is a plot-driven story that both nods to cold war thrillers and regenerates the genre. This contemporary and imaginative take on the bold schemes behind the Cold War politics and their life-changing effects on individuals and family’s, questions Finland’s role as an always so silent and neutral player between two giants.
Tua Harno shares the background of the book that started from the idea of a movie script, the twist in the plot, and how she delicately combines fact and fiction. She reveals why she decided to write a spy story that has a focus on the individuals instead of a traditional action-packed thriller, and which Finnish clichés are portrayed in the spy story set in 1980s Finland?
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