Elena

By Joel Haahtela

An intriguing, excruciatingly beautiful novella about a lonely man and his growing obsession with a mysterious woman. For the past three months the man has been preoccupied with a woman he saw from afar. He has been waiting for her in the park every day since, observing her, discovering and imagining her life – but he never attempts to approach her. A book left behind on a stair reveals her name: Elena. In the summer, the woman disappears. When she returns with autumn, an inner restraint is unleashed, and the man realises the reason he is drawn to her. And then he meets Elena, but only once. The fourth book by the master of shorter literary fiction, Elena was nominated for the 2003 Finlandia Prize.

Publishing information

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.