Representing the best
Finnish authors abroad
Finnish authors abroad
Winner of the Runeberg Prize and a Nordic Council Literature Prize nominee, Helene is a luminous literary portrait of the celebrated Finnish painter Helene Schjerfbeck (1862-1946), one of the most distinctive figures of Nordic modernism.
Drawn to the paintings of Helene Schjerfbeck, author and poet Rakel Liehu embarked on a years-long quest to discover the woman and the life behind them. The result is a remarkable novel that charts the creative journey of one of the great pioneers of Nordic modernism.
Helene tells the story of an uncompromising talent, a fiercely intelligent and deeply sensitive woman, and the hidden experiences of love that shaped her inner life. At the same time, it opens the door to the solitude of the artist’s final years and to the haunting power of the late self-portraits that secured Schjerfbeck’s place in the history of modern art.
With intimacy, intensity and a poet’s sensitivity to language, Liehu portrays an artist whose relentless search for the essential gave rise to one of the most distinctive expressions of Nordic modernism. Her portrait unfolds in bold, assured strokes that seem drawn from the painter’s own brush.
As international interest in Helene Schjerfbeck continues to grow through major exhibitions of her artwork in New York, London and Paris, Helene offers readers an unforgettable entry into the life and work of a pioneering modernist.
Runeberg Prize, 2004
Thank You for the Book Prize, 2005
Nordic Council Literary Prize nominee, 2005
Estonian (Ny Norden)
Norwegian (Gyldendal)
Swedish (Forum)
Helene (Nordisk Film, 2020)
English excerpts
Finnish pdf
French excerpts
Norwegian edition
Swedish edition
‘Rakel Liehu’s novel about the Finland-Swedish painter Helene Schjerfbeck is a major work of international interest, exceptionally well-written and well-structured.’ — Kulturnytt (Norway)
‘In this chronologically fragmented, fictional autobiography, the narrative takes flight, and one realizes why the Finnish poet and author Rakel Liehu has long been celebrated for her bold relationship with her mother tongue, a language that resists being dismantled. She endows Schjerfbeck with an impressionistic language, at once raw and restrained, peppered with French expressions and idiosyncratic punctuation, which fits well with what I have seen of the rebel’s surviving letters.’ — Ceclilia Nelson, Göteborgs Posten (Sweden)
‘Helene is a novel about one artist in particular and about the artist’s craft in general; it is profound and respectful, yet devoid of any idealisation or sentimental reverence. Although based on the life of Helene Schjerfbeck, it goes beyond the confines of a mere biography: it is a timeless exploration of creativity and its demands, of vocation, and of the determination required for any creative endeavour.” — Statement of the Runeberg Prize Jury winning announcement
‘Helene is an unconventional novel and a remarkable accomplishment in its own right. It paints a vivid portrait of its protagonist while uncovering something universal in both the experience of living and the act of artistic creation.’ —Helsingin Sanomat daily newspaper
‘Rakel Liehu writes Schjerfbeck’s inner monologue, which at times becomes a fragmented stream of consciousness. The past and the present alternate, and the events are not presented in chronological order. This approach works well. It avoids the danger that so easily threatens works of this kind: that of presenting human life as though it were following some coherent plot.’ —Helsingin Sanomat daily newspaper
‘A human face was Helene Schjerfbeck’s great passion, her true icon. Rakel Liehu captures this fascination with extraordinary sensitivity. In her novel, the poet-novelist writes with an intensity reminiscent of that found in Schjerfbeck’s paintings. The artist’s late still lives, at once austere and deeply moving, have been a profound source of inspiration for Liehu.’ — Etelä-Suomen Sanomat daily newspaper
‘A breathtaking journey into the inner world of the artist Schjerfbeck. A magnificent artist novel.’ — Turun Sanomat daily newspaper
‘A novel about an artist in which the blending of fact and fiction does not obscure but rather deepens our understanding of the artist’s calling.’— Author, literary critic Helena Ruuska, 2013
