Helsinki Book Fair – Day 3

Day 3

Check out post #1: Helsinki Book Fair – Day 1 & 2

9-11:  Third day started with brunch intended for the book bloggers. During this brunch many Finnish authors (Kaisa Haatanen, Simo Hiltunen, Katja Kettu, Erkka Mykkänen, Vuokko Sajaniemi, Roope Sarvilinna, Jussi Seppänen and Saara Turunen) told briefly of their books, described their writing process and answered to many questions book bloggers had. In the end of the brunch, famous Russian author Mikhail Shishkin told about his book ‘Maidenhair’. Author also discussed achieving immortality through writing or through art in general. Very lovely brunch, it was wonderful to meet other bloggers as well as hear how authors had written their books.

11.30-12.00 Artemi Troitski and Luke Harding discussed Russia, KGB and murders of Anna Politkovskaja and Boris Nemtsov. Troitski used to work together with Politkovskaja in Novaya Gazeta and there was a new book from him translated into Finnish. This was very interesting topic and discussion. Both journalists/authors remained hopeful that perhaps one day there would be streets in Moscow named after Politkovskaja and Nemtsov.

12.oo – 12.30 Arman Alizad & Meeri Koutaniemi: Riisuttu Suomi. Meeri Koutaniemi is Finnish photojournalist. Arman Alzad is best known for the martial arts series Kill Arman as well as many other tv shows. In their new book they have interviewed Finns from all walks of life to really cut through the Finnish society.

13.00-14.00 Mikko Porvali: Pirtusodan CSI

Mikko Porvali is Finnish non-fiction author and detective and he has just published his new novel which is called in Finnish: Sinisen kuoleman kuva. In his books main characters are police officers in 1920s Finland. In this event he explained how hard police work was during that time. From 1919–32 Finland was under prohibition and it was enforced by law. Soon after prohibition alcohol was smuggled from abroad to Finland in unprecedented amounts. Stopping smuggling was very hard because police back then had very few cars and boats in their use. There was a law accoring to which police had to sell cars and boats they acquired from criminals so before the law was changed, smugglers could often buy their vehicles back. What also made police work harder was that there was no name register in Finland before 1920, so basically you could change your last name 5 times a day. Finger prints were first accepted in Finland only in 1927 ( 25 years later than many other European countries).

Porvali currently works as detective so I think it’s very interesting to read his novel about police. This was perhaps my favorite event at the book fair (maybe I have a calling for this profession).

Book fair continues in Helsinki still today, however I am coming down with something so I had to skip the fair today -_-