The Many Deaths of Irina

By Asko Sahlberg

A short but probing novel about death and rebirth.

In winter 1944, Irina is sent out of bomb-damaged Helsinki to western Sweden as a war child. The blood-stained tragedy hangs over the journey. Adjusting to a new country and Swedish foster parents leads Irina out of the shadows of war and into the shadows of peace time and the private nightmare of a family weighed down by emotional wounds.

The Many Deaths of Irina is the story of people who are groping in the darkness for themselves and for one another. It’s a girl’s coming of age story and a penetrating probe into life’s secret areas, an account of inborn persistence and man’s undying hope, a brilliant analysis of the impossibility of returning to the past, and a beautiful tale of death and rebirth.

Publishing information

About the author

Asko Sahlberg (b. 1964) is one of the most distinguished contemporary Finnish authors. He has been living in Sweden, near Gothenburg, since 1996.Sahlberg writes both dense and intense novellas, and large-scale fresco-type narratives on historic subjects. He excels at discussing profound and timeless issues and contemporary problems alike.