Pirkko Saisio and Triin Tael

Pirkko Saisio (1949) is a Finnish writer, screenwriter and actor. She is one of the most important and versatile writers in Finland, having written novels, plays, screenplays, libretti, and lyrics, and she has also produced several of her plays and acted in theatre productions and films. She has been nominated for the most important literary award in Finland, the Finlandia Prize, on no less than seven occasions, winning in 2003 with her fourteenth novel, the autobiographical The Red Book of Farewells (Punainen erokirja). Estonian readers can enjoy two of her books, Cain’s Daughter (Kainin tytär, 1984) about the love between two women, pianist Risku and cellist Anna. The second is her most recent novel Passion (Passio, 2021) which takes the reader to 16th-century Europe, with Florence and Venice at the one end and Saisio’s homeland at the other. Saisio has written under assumed names, including Jukka Larsson and Eva Wein – like the heteronyms of Fernando Pessoa, these characters have their own biographies. Pirkko Saisio will talk to translator Triin Tael.