Men and People

By Olli Jalonen

That summer everything happened for the first time. The 17-year-old narrator spends his summer days in a metal shop, following the activities and talk of burly men. The bustle is at times chaotic but the opinions are firm. To make it in this group, the assistant must get the hang of the metal workers’ tragicomic code of honour. Uncertainty about the future colours the summer, but the evenings and nights are filled with legal and illegal undertakings. Delicate, difficult first steps must be taken in the realms of both love and sexuality. When the narrator father has to go to the hospital, a message arrives that opens old secrets, and many things appear in a new light. Men and People is an absorbing novel about the summer when a young man acquires his first experience with working life, women and alcohol. Jalonen describes youth and the atmosphere of the era with impressive perception and empathy.

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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