An excerpt from Shadowmind by Harry Salmenniemi has been featured on The Point Magazine in English translation by Henri Antikainen.
Author Harry Salmenniemi debuted as novelist in 2023 with Shadowmind (Varjotajunta, Siltala 2023) with several collection of award-winning and warmly praised novella collections on his back.
In Shadowmind, Salmenniemi is about to embark on a train journey home. The shopping mall where he stops for coffee, the station, the platform and all the little, mundane details that come with the journey all shine with new light as the author focuses on them and reflects on the ordinary and the extraordinary things in his life. Combining style experimentations, autofiction, and reflections on contemporary life and society, Salmenniemi takes readers on a journey where modern culture is looked into, and smiled upon, with warmth. The novel was nominated for the Runeberg Prize, the second most prestigious award in the country.
The Point magazine is a thrice-yearly published literary magazine based in Chicago, Illinois. The magazine publishes essays, reviews, and articles on literature, culture, and the arts. The excerpt of Shadowmind published on The Point is translated by Henri Antikainen is titled Deep Breath. In it, the author and narrator is waiting for the train and grabs a coffee at a mall in Helsinki, and sinks deep into thoughts about both mundane and essential things.
You can find the whole excerpt here, and you can read more about Salmenniemi’s authorship here.