Chiméra 38 – Westö Kjell (2021)

The year 1938, fateful for Europe and the whole world. And for the intimate society of the club of six privileged forty-somethings from Helsinki, who must clarify their stance towards Hitler's Germany, the values of liberal democracy, and each other in these heightened times. How should they act when the nephew of one of them is denied victory in a running competition simply because their family are Jews? A key member of the club is lawyer Thune, who employs the capable and teachable, but also mysterious Mrs. Wiik, a woman of many faces. Upon her first meeting with the gentlemen's club, she realizes that she already knows one of the men. They crossed paths twenty years ago during the Finnish Civil War between the whites and the reds, under circumstances she has been desperately trying to forget. The book, set in the unique environment of the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland, combines elements of a historical novel and a detective story with an almost thriller-like conclusion. In 2014, it won the Nordic Council Literature Prize awarded for the best work from the countries of Northern Europe and has been translated into 19 languages.