Becoming Father and Daughter

By Olli Jalonen

Finlandia prize winning novel, the second story in the trilogy about the fate of the Betel family. Jouko-Johan is a divorced man who has explored strange places in this world.  His most recent studies concern minorities in the Iraqi and Iranian border regions. The father’s worry about his 12-year-old daughter weighs his heart. What kind of view of life will she have, growing up with her successful and careerist mother and step-father? Jouko-Johan returns to Finland and kidnaps his daughter. A long odyssey across Europe starts, with new names and new passports. Although Jouko-Johan does his best, nothing goes according to his expectations. Johan and Johan, the Finlandia prize winning novel Becoming Father and Daughter and the last part of the trilogy, Life, and Life, explore the stages of the Betel family for four generations. Written in serene, bright language and illustrating the arbitrary character of birth, life and death.

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About the author

Olli Jalonen (b. 1954) is one of Finland’s most respected authors. Since 1978, he has written over 15 works of fiction, some non-fiction and a children’s fantasy novel. Jalonen has received several important literary prizes, including the Finlandia Prize, and he has been nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize three times. Jalonen has lived in Finland, Sweden and Ireland, working as a reporter, information officer and researcher. His extensive oeuvre also includes radio plays and scripts for screen and stage.“Jalonen is a master at building open places into a text. His stories breathe, and each page contains an expectation, of good or evil.”– Kouvolan Sanomat