The Nordic Reader

In today’s episode we are joined by our editor and social media guru Hanna Todd to reflect on some highlights from the first season of the podcast.

Books Mentioned:

Katabasis - R.F. Kuang

Babel - R.F. Kuang

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson

The Year of the Hare - Arto Paasilinna

Unknown Soldiers - Väinö Linna

The Red Book of Farewells - Pirkko Saisio

The Wall - Marlen Haushofer

Summer Fishing in Lapland - Juhani Karila

Esther the Butcher - Mariia Niskavaara

The Wizard of the Kremlin - Giuliano Da Empoli

Host and producer: Mia Todd

Co-host: Francis Neale

Editing and marketing: Hanna Todd

In today’s episode of The Nordic Reader, we are joined by award winning author Sofi Oksanen. Sofi is author of six novels, a number of plays and librettos, essays, poetry and non-fiction works. Her books have been translated into 45 languages and have sold more than 2 million copies across the globe. Her work has been awarded multiple prizes, including the Finlandia Prize and the Runeberg Prize in Finland, the Prix Femina Ètranger and the Prix du Roman in France, The European Book Prize, The Swedish Academy Nordic Prize and the Budapest Grand Prize, to name but a few.

With her strong social commentary and commitment to revealing the dark underbelly of the world, Sofi’s novels have been compared to the likes of Charles Dickens and Margret Atwood.

In today’s episode, we talk about Sofi’s most recent novel Dog Park, a thriller set in Helsinki and post-Soviet Ukraine. Published in Finnish in 2019, the English translation is by Owen F. Witesman and was published in 2021 by Atlantic Books in the UK and by Alfred A. Knopf in the US.

Books mentioned:

Dog Park - Sofi Oksanen

Purge - Sofi Oksanen

When the Doves Disappeared - Sofi Oksanen

The Orphanage - Serhiy Zhadan

Last Witnesses: An Oral History of the Children of World War II - Svetlana Alexievich

On The Calculation of Volume III - Solvej Balle

Guest: Sofi Oksanen

Host and producer: Mia Todd

Co-host: Francis Neale

Editing and marketing: Hanna Todd

In this, the 9th episode of The Nordic Reader podcast, we discuss Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book. First published in Swedish in 1972, it has been translated into English by Thomas Teal.

Tove Jansson is probably Finland’s most famous author, known as the creator of the now-iconic Moomins. Part of the Swedish speaking minority in Finland, she was a notable illustrator and painter, as well as a writer. She published her first Moomin book in 1945. It was an immense success, and she followed it up with several more books in close succession.

In this episode, we talk about one of her most well-known books for adults, The Summer Book. Set on an island in the Finnish archipelago, The Summer Book tells the story of a grandmother and her six year old granddaughter, Sofia, who is staying with her over the summer. Through a series of short chapters, Tove Jansson captures the adventures, discussions and moments that grandmother and granddaughter experience over the course of the summer.

Books mentioned:

The Summer Book - Tove Jansson

A Winter Book - Tove Jansson

The Ministry of Time - Kaliane Bradley

The Diary of a Madman - Nikolay Gogol

The Kiss - Anton Chekov

Lowest Common Denominator - Pirkko Saisio

Introduction read by Hanna Todd

Host and producer: Mia Todd

Co-host: Francis Neale

Editing and marketing: Hanna Todd

In today’s episode we are joined by author Mariia Niskavaara to talk about her debut novel, Esther, the Butcher. Published in Finnish in October 2025, the English translation by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson is expected to be published in February 2027.

Mariia is an art historian and museum curator turned author. Alongside her work at the Finnish National Gallery and the Modern Art Museum in Espoo, she has recently finished her PhD at the University of Helsinki, where she wrote her thesis on the aesthetics of meat, the body, and decay. Esther, the Butcher won the prestigious Helsingin Sanomat Debut of the Year prize last year, and was shortlisted for the Runeberg Prize. The book has also attracted significant international attention, and translation rights have been sold in 30 territories.

Mariia’s agents, Bonnier Rights Finland, offer this description of the novel: “From childhood, Esther rehearses life outside her parents’ butcher shop—pushing a baby doll under her dress, waddling until it tumbles onto the asphalt before bewildered customers.

Years later, Esther becomes a butcher herself, gifted with an uncanny ability to understand the language of meat. Yet her craft cannot satisfy the fierce longing that consumes her: the desire to reproduce. When an artificial inseminator enters her life, hope flickers—but no child comes. Under the gaze of a small-town community, Esther moves through life as if on a surreal theatre stage, her lonely room pulsing with the joys and sorrows of the world.”

Books Mentioned:

Esther, the Butcher - Mariia Niskavaara

Glass, Irony and God - Anne Carson

Bitch: A Revolutionary Guide to Sex, Evolution and the Female Animal - Lucy Cooke

Open Heavens - Jonas Eika (to be published in English in 2027)

Hot Milk - Deborah Levy

The Dog Stars - Peter Heller

Fever - Deon Meyer

The Summer Book - Tove Jansson

Guest: Mariia Niskavaara

Producer and Host: Mia Todd

Co-host: Francis Neale

Editing and Marketing: Hanna Todd

In today’s episode of The Nordic Reader, we are joined by literary translator Mia Spangenberg to chat about her translation of Pirkko Saisio’s Lowest Common Denominator. Originally published in Finnish in 1998, Mia’s English translation is published by Two Lines Press in the US, and by Penguin Random House in the UK. 

Mia translates from Finnish, German and Swedish into English. After studying German and Russian literature during her undergraduate years, she went on to get her PhD in Scandinavian studies, with a focus on Finnish literature and cultural studies. Mia graduated from the FILI Finnish to English literary translation mentorship programme in 2017, and translates fiction, non-fiction and children’s literature. In 2021, she received an honourable mention for the Nadia Christensen Prize for an excerpt of her translation of Pirkko Saisio’s The Red Book of Farewells, and in 2024, she won this same prize for an excerpt of her translation of Lowest Common Denominator. 

Pirkko Saisio is one of Finland’s most iconic writers. An author, actress and director, Saisio has been nominated for Finland’s most prestigious literary prize, the Finlandia award, 7 times. She won it in 2003 for The Red Book of Farewells, the third volume of her Helsinki Trilogy. Her work has also won numerous other awards, including the J. H. Erkko Award, the Aleksis Kivi Prize and State Literature Award, amongst others. 

In Lowest Common Denominator, Pirkko Saisio transports us to the 1950s Finland of her youth, where she navigates life as an only child of communist parents. Convinced she will grow up to become a man, a young Pirkko keeps trying and failing to meet the expectations of the adults around her.

With wit and style, Saisio captures the heart-wrenching intensity of childhood feeling, merging fever dreams with sensory-laden memories as each formative experience – with the Big Bad Wolf, a bikini-clad circus announcer, and Jesus Christ himself – drives her further and further from her family and others. Struggling to understand her place in the world around her, it’s in language that she discovers a refuge and a way to be seen at last.

Find more information about Mia’s work here: https://www.miaspangenberg.com/

See more of Mia’s translations here: https://wordswithoutborders.org/read/article/2026-06/a-sami-womans-sin-imagining-other-peoples-sex-lives-west-spangenberg/ 

Books Mentioned: 

Lowest Common Denominator - Pirkko Saisio

Backlight - Pirkko Saisio

The Red Book of Farewells - Pirkko Saisio

I Who Have Never Known Men - Jacqueline Harpman

The Wall - Marlen Haushofer

The Inheritors - William Golding

The Mirror Visitor Quartet - Christelle Dabos

The Letter for the King - Tonke Dragt

My Brilliant Friend - Elena Ferrante 

Guest: Mia Spangenberg

Producer and Host: Mia Todd

Co-host: Francis Neale

Editing and Marketing: Hanna Todd

In today’s episode of The Nordic Reader, we are joined by Anna Kokko to discuss Francesca Giannone’s novel, The Letter Carrier. Anna is an Executive Editor at WSOY, where she works with translated fiction. Originally published in Italian, the text is translated into Finnish by Leena Taavitsainen-Petäjä under the title Lizzanellon kirjeenkantaja, and was published by WSOY in March 2026. The English translation is done by Elettra Pauletto and was published in June 2025.

The Letter Carrier is the debut novel by Italian author Francesca Giannone. Published in 2023, the book has been an extraordinary success, selling over 700 000 copies in Italy alone, and winning the prestigious Premio Bancarella prize.

The novel centres around Anna Allavena and her family. Spanning almost 30 years, the story starts in 1934, when Anna moves to the small town of Lizanello with her husband, Carlo, and their son, Roberto. This is Carlo’s hometown, and here Carlo reunites with his brother, Antonio, and his family. However, Anna finds herself labelled as the “outlander”, and struggles to find her place in the town. Direct and outspoken, Anna has her own opinions and ambitions. Keen to work and have a purpose in her life outside of her family, she becomes the local letter carrier - causing quite the stir in the town. As Anna seeks to establish herself in Lizanello, other members of the family struggle with their own troubles.

Skipping over the war years, the novel traces the lives of four main characters and their children from 1934 to 1961. Deeply rooted in the small town setting of Lizanello, it is an epic family saga with some great twists and turns.

Books Mentioned:

The Letter Carrier by Francesca Giannone

Septology by Jon Fosse

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

Good Morning Midnight by Jean Rhys

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Unruly by David Mitchell

Guest: Anna Kokko

Producer and Host: Mia Todd

Co-host: Francis Neale

Editing and Marketing: Hanna Todd

In today’s episode of The Nordic Reader, we are joined by translator Lola Rogers to discuss her translation of Johanna Sinisalo’s novel, The Core of the Sun. Originally published in Finnish in 2013, Lola’s English translation was published by Grove Atlantic in 2016. 

Lola is an award-winning Finnish to English literary translator. She has translated 21 novels, as well as short stories, comics, poems, children’s literature, nonfiction and essays. Some of the most well-known titles that she has translated include Fishing for the Little Pike/Summer Fishing in Lapland by Juhani Karila, When the Doves disappeared and Purge, by Sofi Oksanen, The Healer by Antti Tuomainen, The Colonel’s Wife by Rosa Liksom and today’s book, The Core of the Sun, by Johanna Sinisalo. 

Johanna Sinisalo is one of Finland’s most prominent contemporary writers. The Core of the Sun is set in an alternate, dystopian reality, a Finnish “eusistocracy”. Public health and social stability are the only goals, and to this end, gender relations have been re-codified. Women have been selectively bred to be desirable elois, beautiful and uneducated, meant for homemaking and childrearing, or are shunned as morlocks. There is a strict prohibition on all substances - alcohol, drugs, and most importantly, chilli. The novel’s main character is Vera. A “capso” - a capsaicin addict - and a morlock pretending to be an eloi woman, Vera is hiding from the all-powerful Authority. But when Vera's younger sister Mira disappears, Vera is desperate to find out what happened to her. As she battles to discover the truth, Vera becomes increasingly involved in the illicit chilli trade, and must navigate her own relationships and future in this dystopian society. 

Find more information about Lola's work here: https://feltcooperative.org/lola-rogers-cv/

Books mentioned: 

The Core of the Sun - Johanna Sinisalo

Troll: A Love Story - Johanna Sinisalo

Blood of Angels - Johanna Sinisalo

Summer Fishing in Lapland/Fishing for the Little Pike - Juhani Karila

On the Calculation of Volume - Solvej Balle 

The Wax Child - Olga Ravn 

The Proof of My Innocence - Jonathan Coe

Atonement - Ian McEwan

The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

1984 - George Orwell

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley 

The Hunger Games - Susanne Collins

The Maze Runner - James Dashner 

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep - Phillip K Dick

Next Up: The Letter Carrier - Francesca Giannone

Guest: Lola Rogers

Producer and Host: Mia Todd

Co-host: Francis Neale

Editing and Marketing: Hanna Todd 

In today’s episode of The Nordic Reader, we chat to author Petra Rautiainen about her debut novel, Land of Snow and Ashes. The novel is translated by David Hackston.

Published in 2020, Land of Snow and Ashes won the Savonia Prize, and was nominated for the Helsingin Sanomat Literature prize and the Lapland Literature Prize.

The story unfolds in a dual timeline, in the years during and shortly after World War 2. In 1944, Väinö Remes arrives at a Nazi prison camp in Northern Finland. Set to work as a translator, Remes quickly gets swept up in the brutality of the camp, and the strange events that occur in the middle of the night. Some years later, in 1947, photographer and journalist Inkari Lindqvist arrives in Enontekiö, in Lapland. She is searching for her husband, who disappeared during the war. Northern Finland has been decimated by the German’s scorched earth policy, and the community is slowly starting to rebuild. But the new national Finnish identity clashes with Sami life and culture, and as Inkari starts her investigation, she exposes a great deal more than she was initially expecting...

This novel pulls back the curtain on a hidden and seldom talked about period of Finnish history. It is one of the first novels to talk about the Nazi camps in Finland, and tackles the eugenics projects that took place there, and the impacts of Finnish nationalism on the Sami people in the North of the country.

Books Mentioned:

Land of Snow and Ashes - Petra Rautiainen

Memory of Ocean - Petra Rautiainen

Tree Killers - Petra Rautiainen

The Vegetarian - Han Kang

Is a River Alive? - Robert McFarlane

The Old Ways - Robert McFarlane

Landmarks - Robert McFarlane

Underland - Robert McFarlane

On the Calculation of Volume - Solvej Balle

Guest: Petra Rautiainen

Producer and Host: Mia Todd

Co-host: Francis Neale

Editing and Marketing: Hanna Todd

On the corner of Nervanderinkatu and Dagmarinkatu in central Helsinki, you’ll find the Arkadia International Bookshop. As you enter the shop, you will find yourself in a large, cosy room, with couches, a piano, and floor to ceiling bookshelves on every wall. The store sells second hand books, mostly in English, both fiction and non-fiction.  But if you explore, you will enter a maze, with room after room of books in multiple languages, including Swedish, Finnish, French, Spanish, German, Russian, and Hungarian. But perhaps the most iconic feature is the store's owner, Ian Bourgeot. 

In today’s episode of The Nordic Reader, we are joined by Ian to discuss Diego Marani’s novel, New Finnish Grammar.  

Published by Daedalus books and translated into English by Judith Landry, New Finnish Grammar was shortlisted for the 2012 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the 2012 Best Translated Book Award. 

Set during World War II, the novel follows a young man who wakes up in a doctor’s office in Trieste having suffered a catastrophic head injury. He cannot remember anything. The attending doctor, Friari, is a Finn living in Germany whose family had fled their homeland following its civil war.  

Finding a Finnish name sewn into the young man’s jacket, Dr Friari assumes he is Finnish. As he recovers, Friari begins to teach him Finnish, hoping that his memories will return with the language. Soon Friari arranges for the young man to travel to Helsinki.  There he befriends the eccentric priest Olaf Koskela, and the lovely nurse Ilma, as he continues to search for his place in the world. 

Books Mentioned:

New Finnish Grammar - Diego Marani

Diary of a Bookseller - Shaun Bythell

The Magic Mountain - Thomas Mann

Journey into Freedom - Klaus Mann

The Retrospective - AB Yehoshua 

Naufrage/Small Boat - Vincent Delecroix 

Apeirogon - Colum McCann 

Tokyo Express - Seichō Matsumoto

Kaputt - Curzio Malaparte 

Guest: Ian Bourgeot

Producer and Host: Mia Todd

Co-host: Francis Neale

Editing and Marketing: Hanna Todd

In today’s episode of The Nordic Reader we are joined by Daniel Seton to discuss Giuliano da Empoli’s novel, The Wizard of the Kremlin. The Editorial Director at Pushkin Press, Daniel acquired and published the English translation in the UK. Originally published in French, The Wizard of the Kremlin is translated by Willard Wood. 

The Wizard of the Kremlin is a fictionalised account inspired by a real person, one of Vladimir Putin’s most important advisors who is thought to be responsible for much of the strategy behind Putin’s rise to power in Russia. 

In da Empoli’s novel, the unnamed narrator - a student doing some research on Yevgeny Zamyatin - is travelling in Moscow when he is invited to meet the enigmatic Vadim Baranov. Putin’s right hand man and head of propaganda, Baranov is a master of theatre and performance. He knows exactly how to spin a story, how to control the narrative, and how to build an empire. He has recently retired and retreated from the public eye. And while he scoffs at the idea of writing his memoirs, Baranov shares his story with the narrator. Starting in Soviet era Russia, Baranov draws back the curtain on the truth of power and democracy, the role of technology and propaganda in Vladimir Putin’s rise to power, and the events and decisions that established Russian politics as we know them today.

Giuliano da Empoli is an Italian-Swiss political scientist, who was once a senior advisor to the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, and is now a professor at Sciences Po in Paris. The book has been translated into 36 languages, and has a been made into a film which premiered at the 2025 Venice film festival. 

Books Mentioned: 

The Wizard of the Kremlin - Giuliano da Empoli

The Hour of the Predator - Giuliano da Empoli

At Night All Blood is Black - David Diop

Strange Houses - Uketsu

Our Wild Garden - Daniel Seton, illustrated by Pieter Fannes

Wilding - Isabella Tree

The Wasp Factory - Ian Banks 

The Mask of Dimitrios - Eric Ambler

Sovietistan - Erika Fatland 

Nothing to See Here - Kevin Wilson

Now Is Not the Time to Panic - Kevin Wilson

Guest: Daniel Seton

Producer and Host: Mia Todd

Co-host: Francis Neale 

Editing and Marketing: Hanna Todd