Backlight
Published on 5. February 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
272 pages
978-0-241-73007-2 (ISBN)
Description
A riveting, funny coming-of-age story: the second volume in Pirkko Saisio's award-winning Helsinki trilogy
Teenaged Pirkko can't decide which she hates most: God, her communist father, or her growing breasts. Grandpa has moved into the room long promised to her, and Mother, overworked and distant, tries to keep the peace between her headstrong daughter and husband. It's 1960s Finland and Pirkko has fun getting into trouble. That is, until her teacher suggests she might have what it takes to be a real writer. Then the historic summer of 1968 arrives, which Pirkko spends working at a Swiss orphanage where no one understands her and, as much as her family drive her mad, she's homesick for the first time.
As the world shifts and swirls around her, Pirkko must make sense of it all - including her own sexual identity. A funny, unique coming-of-age story and an intimate portrait of a life lived in language, Backlight is the second volume in Pirkko Saisio's award-winning Helsinki trilogy.
Teenaged Pirkko can't decide which she hates most: God, her communist father, or her growing breasts. Grandpa has moved into the room long promised to her, and Mother, overworked and distant, tries to keep the peace between her headstrong daughter and husband. It's 1960s Finland and Pirkko has fun getting into trouble. That is, until her teacher suggests she might have what it takes to be a real writer. Then the historic summer of 1968 arrives, which Pirkko spends working at a Swiss orphanage where no one understands her and, as much as her family drive her mad, she's homesick for the first time.
As the world shifts and swirls around her, Pirkko must make sense of it all - including her own sexual identity. A funny, unique coming-of-age story and an intimate portrait of a life lived in language, Backlight is the second volume in Pirkko Saisio's award-winning Helsinki trilogy.
Reviews / Votes
Like Annie Ernaux but funny -- Irene Bluche * rbbKultur * This is both family history and contemporary political history, sexual self-discovery and artist biography... moving and clever, funny and beautiful * NZZ am Sonntag, Best Books of the Century * If you love Deborah Levy, you'll adore Pirkko Saisio * Le Masque et la plume * Long an object of study in Finland, Saisio's work is beginning to gain more global recognition now, cementing her place in the canon of autofiction that also includes the Nordic writers Karl Ove Knausgaard and Tove Ditlevsen -- Niina Pollari * Los Angeles Review of Books *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Penguin Books Ltd
Product notice
Paperback (UK-trade)
Dimensions
Height: 212 mm
Width: 138 mm
Thickness: 27 mm
Weight
282 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-241-73007-2 (9780241730072)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Persons
Pirkko Saisio (Author)
Pirkko Saisio (born 1949) is one of Finland's most celebrated writers as well as an actor and theatre director. The author of numerous novels, plays and scripts for film and television, Saisio has been nominated for the Finlandia Prize seven times, winning it in 2003. She has, among other awards, received the Aleksis Kivi Prize and the State Literature Award. Backlight is the second volume in her Helsinki trilogy, preceded by Lowest Common Denominator and followed by The Red Book of Farewells.
Mia Spangenberg (Translator)
Mia Spangenberg translates from Finnish, Swedish and German. She is the winner of the Nadia Christensen Prize for her translation of Lowest Common Denominator.
Pirkko Saisio (born 1949) is one of Finland's most celebrated writers as well as an actor and theatre director. The author of numerous novels, plays and scripts for film and television, Saisio has been nominated for the Finlandia Prize seven times, winning it in 2003. She has, among other awards, received the Aleksis Kivi Prize and the State Literature Award. Backlight is the second volume in her Helsinki trilogy, preceded by Lowest Common Denominator and followed by The Red Book of Farewells.
Mia Spangenberg (Translator)
Mia Spangenberg translates from Finnish, Swedish and German. She is the winner of the Nadia Christensen Prize for her translation of Lowest Common Denominator.