Protisvětlo, Červená kniha loučení – Saisio Pirkko (2025)

The second and third parts of the autobiographical trilogy from Helsinki.

The novel Protisvětlo captures the summer of the turbulent year 1968. A young Finnish girl, after graduating from high school, is determined to break free from her leftist and otherwise constraining upbringing.

During her work stint at a Swiss orphanage, memories of her school years in the center of Helsinki resurface, along with beloved and hated teachers and a complicated family life. The trembling uncertainty of first loves, glances, arguments, and timid desires is interspersed with grievances, slights, and inevitable clashes with the adult world.

In the culminating part of the trilogy, the novel Červená kniha loučení, Saisio describes with precision, exaggeration, and a balanced dose of nostalgia how a shy girl transforms into a confident and ambitious artist. The university student moves from her parents' home to her first girlfriend's place, engages in revolutionary political activities, visits forbidden underground queer bars, experiences her first erotic encounters, romantic relationships, and breakups, and discovers one of her greatest passions — theater.