The Ability to Breathe
By
Joel Haahtela
A captivating novella about father and son, a windy island, and the art of forgiveness.
A young man arrives in a wintery Greece in search of his father, who disappeared years ago. The journey leads to a remote and secluded island where a small hermit community lives in harmony with nature, breathing into the rhythm of the seasons. As winter turns to spring, father and son sit at the foot of an olive tree, and slowly some of the weight on their shoulders begins to ease.
About the author
Joel Haahtela (b. 1972) is an author and psychiatrist. He was inspired to specialise in psychiatry after reading Oliver Sacks’ book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.The author has been recognized with two Finlandia Prize nominations and has also been nominated for the Runeberg Prize for literature two times. People’s stories are important to him in both of his professions, and the self is a key theme in his writing. Haahtela aspires to understand the human condition and the meaning of people’s own decisions in their lives. His parallel careers complement each other very well and Haahtela believes he will never stop writing. When he was still a student, Joel Haahtela published a collection of short stories titled Unicum Zwack together with friends. These short stories gave him the impetus to write a novel during his studies. His debut novel, Twice Disappeared, was published in the spring of 1999.In 2023, Joel Haahtela was awarded the Veijo Meri prize, a recognition by the Otava Literary Foundation for significant efforts in Finnish literature.
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