Backlight

Pirkko Saisio, Mia Spangenberg

$29.99

Paperback

Forthcoming
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Finnish

Penguin Classics
05 February 2026

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945); Historical fiction; Fiction in translation

Series: Penguin International Writers

A riveting, funny coming-of-age story- the second volume in Pirkko Saisio's award-winning Helsinki trilogy

Teenaged Pirkko can't decide which she hates most- God, her communist father, or her growing breasts. Grandpa has moved into the room long promised to her, and Mother, overworked and distant, tries to keep the peace between her headstrong daughter and husband. It's 1960s Finland and Pirkko has fun getting into trouble. That is, until her teacher suggests she might have what it takes to be a real writer. Then the historic summer of 1968 arrives, which Pirkko spends working at a Swiss orphanage where no one understands her and, as much as her family drive her mad, she's homesick for the first time.

As the world shifts and swirls around her, Pirkko must make sense of it all - including her own sexual identity. A funny, unique coming-of-age story and an intimate portrait of a life lived in language, Backlight is the second volume in Pirkko Saisio's award-winning Helsinki trilogy.

Translated from Finnish by Mia Spangenberg.

By: Pirkko Saisio
Translated by: Mia Spangenberg
Imprint: Penguin Classics
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 135mm, Spine: 20mm
Weight: 300g
ISBN: 9780241730072
ISBN 10: 0241730074
Series: Penguin International Writers
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 05 February 2026
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Pirkko Saisio (Author) Pirkko Saisio (born 1949) is one of Finland's most celebrated writers as well as an actor and theatre director. The author of numerous novels, plays and scripts for film and television, Saisio has been nominated for the Finlandia Prize seven times, winning it in 2003. She has, among other awards, received the Aleksis Kivi Prize and the State Literature Award. Backlight is the second volume in her Helsinki trilogy, preceded by Lowest Common Denominator and followed by The Red Book of Farewells. Mia Spangenberg (Translator) Mia Spangenberg translates from Finnish, Swedish and German. She is the winner of the Nadia Christensen Prize for her translation of Lowest Common Denominator.

Reviews for Backlight

Like Annie Ernaux but funny -- Irène Bluche * rbbKultur * This is both family history and contemporary political history, sexual self-discovery and artist biography… moving and clever, funny and beautiful * NZZ am Sonntag, Best Books of the Century * If you love Deborah Levy, you'll adore Pirkko Saisio * Le Masque et la plume * Long an object of study in Finland, Saisio’s work is beginning to gain more global recognition now, cementing her place in the canon of autofiction that also includes the Nordic writers Karl Ove Knausgaard and Tove Ditlevsen -- Niina Pollari * Los Angeles Review of Books *