Three people. Three eras. Three stories about what a person is made of.
Author: Anni Kytömäki
Finnish original: Kivitasku
Publisher: Gummerus, 2017
Number of pages: 645 pp.
Reading material: Finnish original, English sample
Rights sold: World French, Rue de l’échiquier (optioned)
1959. Helena’s last summer is as long as Helena is tall, and just as unpredictable. “I’m no fun, I’m a spoilsport” thinks 16-year-old Helena to herself. She moves to an island, reads a book about Easter Island by an explorer and dreams of adventure. But at the end of summer, she’s about to embark on a different kind of journey.
1849. Sergei has dreamed of revolution. Now he stands scared on a scaffold in St. Petersburg.
2012. Veka is going to the hospital for inpatient care, but instead gets the bus to the family’s summer cottage. Running away is the only way to stay alive, maybe. Veka doesn’t yet know that many others have also hidden on those very same shores…
The past opens its eyes and waits.
Anni Kytömäki’s first novel Goldheart , nominated for the Finlandia Prize, was a tribute to the woods. Stone Weaver leads the reader to rocky outcroppings along the water’s edge. This massive family saga is a writer’s brave plea for the freedom of mind and body.
“It was exciting to see if Anni Kytömäki was able repeat the miracle her debut novel Goldheart was. She was – and more. […] The characters don’t experience many moments of happiness, but the reader gets plenty of them. Kytömäki’s language lives and breathes with the nature and people.”
– Etelä-Suomen Sanomat newspaper
Also available:
Goldheart (2014)
Margarita (2020)
About the author:
Anni Kytömäki