A newly rediscovered hit novel from the 1930s about a woman’s life in a poor, remote corner of the Åland Islands.
Author: Sally Salminen
Finnish original: Katrina
Publisher: Schildts, 1936
Genre: literary fiction
Number of pages: 385 pp.
Reading material: Swedish original, English translation, German translation, Spanish translation
Rights sold: Estonia, Eesti raamat
Young Katrina moves from Ostrobothnia to Åland Islands to marry Johan. Johan is a shiftless swindler and liar incapable of finishing anything, even his child’s coffin. And yet strangely enough, Katrina loves him deeply.
Katrina is a progressive woman for her time, and the novel Katrina was one of the first in Finland to tell a woman’s story from her own perspective. The work depicts life during the early years of Finnish independence in the archipelago of Åland, in all its stark beauty as well as its suspicion of outsiders and turmoil: the political situation of the era is unavoidable in the islands, and criticism of those in power is often present in Katrina’s gaze.
Katrina blends multiple genres, including the adventure story, and the narration and even tragic events are often accompanied by a quiet, intelligent humor. The novel’s characters – both women and men – are unusually complete and complex: in other words, human.
Katrina was an international success in its day: a novel written in New York in 1936 by the cosmopolitan, Swedish-speaking Finn Sally Salminen. Rights to the work were sold to over 20 countries, and the work has risen to renewed success in Finland thanks to a new translation by Finlandia Prize-winning author Juha Hurme.
“The character of Katrina is what makes the novel fresh. In her sense of justice, she is a portrayal of a woman conscious of her human worth, but in no way superhuman.”
– Kouvolan Sanomat newspaper
About the author:
Sally Salminen