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Helsinki Noir
Launched with the summer '04 award-winning best seller Brooklyn Noir, Akashic Books continues its groundbreaking series of original noir anthologies. Each book is comprised of all-new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book.
Featuring brand-new stories by: Leena Lehtolainen, Johanna Holmström, James Thompson, Antti Tuomainen, Jesse Itkonen, Joe L. Murr, Jukka Petäjä, Tapani Bagge, Pekka Hiltunen, Teemu Käskinen, Tuomas Lius, Riikka Ala-Harja, Karo Hämäläinen, and Jarkko Sipila.
From the introduction by James Thompson:
"Finland, the myths and truths. Internationally, it has a reputation as perhaps the best place in the world to live. A great economy. A low crime rate. Good and nearly cost-free health care. The needy are provided for by the state and live in reasonable comfort. Finns: peaceful and quiet people, living in the perfect example of a social democracy functioning as it should. A tourist, or even a person who has lived here for a length of time, might well view Finland as such. There is some truth to this, but like every country, Finland has many truths...
Finland is, like the theme so often explored in Star Trek, a parallel universe in which, on the surface, all seems normal, but under that shell lie vast differences...As this book demonstrates, Finland is a noir nation [and] this anthology is, I believe, the best representation of Finnish noir ever offered to the international community. Every word rings true. It holds Finland up in a way that not only exposes this wonderful and fascinating country to the world, but acts as a mirror that reflects its people and culture in a way every Finn will recognize, vocalizing those truths that are so seldom spoken here amongst ourselves."
Featuring brand-new stories by: Leena Lehtolainen, Johanna Holmström, James Thompson, Antti Tuomainen, Jesse Itkonen, Joe L. Murr, Jukka Petäjä, Tapani Bagge, Pekka Hiltunen, Teemu Käskinen, Tuomas Lius, Riikka Ala-Harja, Karo Hämäläinen, and Jarkko Sipila.
From the introduction by James Thompson:
"Finland, the myths and truths. Internationally, it has a reputation as perhaps the best place in the world to live. A great economy. A low crime rate. Good and nearly cost-free health care. The needy are provided for by the state and live in reasonable comfort. Finns: peaceful and quiet people, living in the perfect example of a social democracy functioning as it should. A tourist, or even a person who has lived here for a length of time, might well view Finland as such. There is some truth to this, but like every country, Finland has many truths...
Finland is, like the theme so often explored in Star Trek, a parallel universe in which, on the surface, all seems normal, but under that shell lie vast differences...As this book demonstrates, Finland is a noir nation [and] this anthology is, I believe, the best representation of Finnish noir ever offered to the international community. Every word rings true. It holds Finland up in a way that not only exposes this wonderful and fascinating country to the world, but acts as a mirror that reflects its people and culture in a way every Finn will recognize, vocalizing those truths that are so seldom spoken here amongst ourselves."
290 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 2014
About the author
Pekka Hiltunen
9 books25 followersPekka Hiltunen (b. 1966) is an author and journalist living in Helsinki. He works as the managing editor at the Mondo magazine.
Hiltunen was nominated for the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize for debut novelists, and was awarded the Kaarle Prize for 2012, the Clue of the Year Prize in 2012 and the Laila Hirvisaari Prize in 2012. He was also awarded the Writing Editor prize for 2010 and nominated for the Scandinavian Glass Key Prize 2013 and Impac Dublin Award 2015. One of Pekka’s literary role models is Peter Høeg, especially Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow.
Publishing rights in Pekka Hiltunen's psychological thriller Cold Courage (2011), which started his Studio-series, have been sold to seven countries. The second novel in the series, Black Noise (2012), got also excellent reviews and has been translated to English, German and Czech languages and will come out in French. Hiltunen writes also general fiction; his third book BIG, a novel on obesity, was published with enormous media buzz in Finland in 2013. In 2015, he publishes his fourth novel in Finnish, the third book in the Studio-series, called Fear Me.
Hiltunen was nominated for the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize for debut novelists, and was awarded the Kaarle Prize for 2012, the Clue of the Year Prize in 2012 and the Laila Hirvisaari Prize in 2012. He was also awarded the Writing Editor prize for 2010 and nominated for the Scandinavian Glass Key Prize 2013 and Impac Dublin Award 2015. One of Pekka’s literary role models is Peter Høeg, especially Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow.
Publishing rights in Pekka Hiltunen's psychological thriller Cold Courage (2011), which started his Studio-series, have been sold to seven countries. The second novel in the series, Black Noise (2012), got also excellent reviews and has been translated to English, German and Czech languages and will come out in French. Hiltunen writes also general fiction; his third book BIG, a novel on obesity, was published with enormous media buzz in Finland in 2013. In 2015, he publishes his fourth novel in Finnish, the third book in the Studio-series, called Fear Me.
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