Midsummer Visitor
By
Anna-Leena Härkönen
What if those nostalgic memories of the summers of youth were just an illusion, a sham?
When Tuija and her sisters sit around the same table, the facade of the earlier summer paradise crumbles into dust. Darker shades cut into the scent of freshly-mown hay and the limpid summer nights. The real memories have to be brought to the surface, even if it hurts.
In Midsummer Visitor the author returns to the rural setting of her first book, The Poleaxe, (1984) more than twenty years later.
Midsummer Eve. We’d just come back from the lake and we’re sitting with Saila in our long nighties on a bench in the cabin and eating crispbread with butter that’s melted in the heat. Suddenly I see Risto in the doorway. He looks straight at me, a little smile starting to curl up.
“You want to watch you dun hurt yesself”, he says.
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“Dun hurt yourself on the corners. Crispbread’s sharp.”
My heart swells up. I wait a few seconds before taking another bite. I don’t want to break the moment by making any moves.
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.
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