Not Tomorrow, Either

By Anna-Leena Härkönen

With her signature wit and accomplished dialogue, Finland’s acclaimed novelist returns with a closely-observed novel that asks whether money really can buy love?

One year after her husband has passed away, Elsa finds herself alone at New Year’s Eve. None of the invitees has shown up to her party, friends from her previous life have lost interest in the widow. With plenty of irony, humor and all her might, Elsa tries to keep her self-esteem from collapsing.

After midnight and two bottles of champagne, she staggers out to make her way to the karaoke bar. In the yard a young man claims that she has forgotten her shoes and escorts her back inside. Valtteri is served delicacies, stores away the leftovers and helps Elsa into her bed. Before leaving, he drops his business card on her nightstand.

Sixty-year-old Elsa, who had already abandoned her identity as a desirable woman with a vivid sexuality when her husband started seeing other women, suddenly awakes to a teenage-like crush on the considerably younger Valtteri. A special relationship unfolds. But money can’t buy love… or can it?

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About the author

Anna-Leena Härkönen (b. 1965) has been among the most prominent figures in Finnish cultural life for more than thirty years, both as an author and scriptwriter, and as a successful stage and screen actress.Härkönen published her debut, The Poleax (Häräntappoase, 1984), at the age of 18 and achieved enormous critical and popular success with this bold and true-to-life novel. The Poleax has been on the market ever since and is still an essential part of the literary education of the young Finnish readers today. Härkönen uses a language bursting with life, and she has an uncompromising sense of the comical. She is not afraid to touch tabus and difficult subjects in her writing.Härkönen has written around 20 works so far, and her work has been translated into more than 10 languages. Her novels have been made into several films and stage productions, among them the six-part television series The Poleax which has been broadcast several times. Claes Olsson has also directed a full-length feature film based on her novel Aquarium Love.