Author: Jarkko Volanen
Finnish original: Vainovalkeat
Publisher: Teos, 2025
Genre: literary fiction
Number of pages: 328 pp.
Reading material: Finnish original, English sample, English synopsis
A deeply emotional novel about terror, fictional identities, and the love that binds people together.
After a long time, brothers Viktor and Valdemar meet each other again. Valdemar
is a dutiful and submissive state official; Viktor has just been released from prison.
The past has left a mark, but their childhood is still shrouded in a mist. Why did
they grow up with their grandparents, in a nearly militant discipline? The truth
may no longer be within reach, or if it is, its price may be too high.
Anna and Elena are a couple who together raise a little boy. Every moment of every
day they fear that their relationship will be exposed, and the child will be taken
away from them. Anna’s work in an organization that tries to help those
persecuted by the state only increases the danger. When she meets Valdemar, who
asks to help his brother, the two of them begin to develop a risky plan.
Signal Fires portrays a life in a society where suspicion is a civic duty, love is a
crime, and every friendly gesture may turn out to be a trap. The characters’ fates
intertwine in fear: not a passing worry, but a continuous, built-in state of mind.
The story reads almost like a thriller, but Volanen’s narration isn’t screaming
special effects and cliff-hangers; rather, it’s a through-through whisper,
underscoring the many parallels to the world we live in today and leaving the
reader in chills.
“Volanen writes skillfully about fear. […] Signal Fires depicts a society where
nothing is what it seems—and where seeing too clearly can be life-threatening.”
–Kirjaluotsi literature blog
About the author
Jarkko Volanen