Tango Boys
By
Antti Tuuri
The story of young Finnish migrants in the 1960s when drastic changes emptied the Finnish countryside and sent thousands of Finns to Sweden.
Sauli works various jobs and plays the accordion in the orchestra of Pohjanmaa. When the soloist singer, Sauli’s wife, leaves for Sweden, the orchestra breaks up. Sauli follows her and enlists in the Volvo foundry where he cleans casts. The work is heavy; the Finns and Yugoslavians are seen as a pariah class.
Outside his work, Sauli starts to play in a dance band. As their reputation as tango players grows, the boys travel to play their music in local areas where Finnish people live, attracting thousands of dancers. Soon, the band begins a tour. Numerous twists of fate will cross Sauli’s path.
About the author
Antti Tuuri (b. 1944) graduated in graphic engineering in 1972. He then worked as a technical director, a managing director and a development director for several printing companies. Since 1983 he has devoted himself to writing.The author is very often a portrayer of the middle-class, a behaviourist characterized by a precise style coloured by Ostrobothnian humour. Tuuri uses language precisely, without wasting words, and with great clarity of narrative. He pays a lot of attention to Man as a link in the natural chain, living at nature’s mercy. Tuuri is always seeking new paths and tends to think in ecological terms.Ostrobothnia (Pohjanmaa), the impressive first volume of a series which Tuuri began in the 1980s, won the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 1985. The book describes a province in which people have always had a flare for rising up, marching and even dying for a cause. An epic film based on the novel was filmed in 1988. Ostrobothnia was followed by five other novels, the last of which, The Call of the Plains (Lakeuden kutsu) concluded the series in a remarkable way. For this novel, Antti Tuuri received the prestigious Finlandia Prize in 1997.Tuuri started to write the series My Mother’s Family (Äitini suku) in 2001 with the novel The Sons of Eerik (Eerikinpojat). The series so far consists of nine published novels, including Skywalkers (Taivaanraapijat, 2005) and The Eternal Road (Ikitie, 2011). The author now has around 60 books to his credit: fiction, documentaries, travel stories, biographies, and corporate histories. He is also an eminent writer of radio, TV, and stage plays as well as opera librettos. Many of his books have been adapted for radio, television and film.Tuuri’s interests range widely from travelling and fly-fishing to sailing and tennis.
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