10 November 2022
Finlandia Prize 2022 Nomination for Stalker Years by Olli Jalonen
We are delighted to share the news that the novel Stalker Years (Stalker-vuodet) by Olli Jalonen has been nominated for the Finlandia Prize 2022!
With his latest novel, Jalonen has now been nominated for the Finlandia Prize six times and has won twice before with Becoming Father and Daughter and The Celestial Sphere. The author is one of only three writers to have gained this achievement along with Bo Carpelan and Jukka Viikilä.
In Stalker Years, Jalonen creates an intense atmosphere, exhibiting an autopsy of the spiritual climate of recent history while cutting deep into the psychology of Finnishness and the so-called dark decade of the 1970s. It’s a thrilling portrait of a whistle blower and a snitch, written in a sincere, calm voice yet revealing a character who falls too deep into the role of an informant.
The Finlandia jury’s motivation for shortlisting the novel states:
“Stalker Years is an impressive cross-section of our contemporary history’s society and politics. In his novel, Jalonen presents a sharp-eyed depiction of the changes in the mental atmosphere of this time that opens into a stinging, threatening image of the loss of our privacy. This book shows that when one’s life is devoted to the following of others, it merely leaves behind an empty shell. Jalonen’s prose does not show off nor tries to lift itself up. It charms the reader by its simple confidence.”
Review from the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper:
“Jalonen, who has published thirty works of prose, writes as if irony had never been invented. The narrator’s voice of Stalker Years is exceptionally sincere. It does not strive for wit, but rather lets the story come, as it is and without embellishment.”
Olli Jalonen is one of Finland’s most respected and awarded literary authors. Since 1978, he has now written 19 works of fiction.
Our sincerest congratulations to the author!
