Representing the best
Finnish authors abroad
Finnish authors abroad
Fact and fiction blend together in three biting narratives about hidden manuscripts, persecution, and a dinner party that goes wrong by the author The Guardian described as “perhaps the greatest writer of Arab fiction alive.”
Full English translation available!
A mysterious black crate arrives at an ISIS command centre in the heart of occupied Mosul, leaving the soldiers and their captives guessing at its contents…
A refugee travels to a remote ‘Northern’ town to study race relations, only to discover one of its bridge-building initiatives is, in fact, a trap…
Drifting from job to job in a corrupt, militia-run Baghdad, a young daydreamer is asked to spy on a protest movement he finds himself entirely sympathising with…
The characters in Hassan Blasim’s latest collection all find themselves in impossible positions – from the ISIS cook working undercover to retrieve ancient manuscripts from a desecrated site, to the refugee in Northern Europe unable to process the devastating dislocation of exile. Violence, intolerance and insecurity stalk them at every turn. And yet, for all their trauma, Hassan’s stories – strung through with intrigue and absurdist humour – are somehow able to draw us in and help us appreciate the infinite complexity implicit in even the most black-and-white contexts.
Arabic Manuscript
Full English translation
Full Finnish Translation
English synopsis
English (World) (Comma Press)
Italian (Utopia Editore)
Serbian (Geopoetika)
‘filled with comedy and horror […] Blasim’s previous collection was award-winning: this one should be, too.’ —John Self, The Guardian
‘Blasim’s words don’t sit neat and quiet on the page, like most ‘well-behaved’ literature; they explode, they frighten, they offend, they make you laugh at things you shouldn’t laugh at and they keep you awake at night. Blasim’s work, like his own life, is a reminder that war rages at our city gates, while we sleep on, convinced that all is fine and dandy with the world.’ —Ra Page, Managing Editor, Comma Press
‘Hassan Blasim is one of the greatest writers of our time and I invite you to read him. His literature cannot be missing from the bookshelves of readers.’ —Gerardo Masuccio, Editor, Utopia editore
‘Blasim shows himself, once again, to be a storyteller beyond compare…’ —Helsingin Sanomat newspaper
‘SOLOLAND is at least as important as Blasim’s previous novel Allah99 (WSOY 2019), which Aamulehti newspaper called the most important novel of the century. Not as a defence speech by asylum seekers but as a bright star of literature, a profoundly touching narrative that increases understanding between people and opens up a new space in the reader’s consciousness. A similar achievement in Finnish literature does not come to mind.’ —Parnasso literary magazine
‘Building on the multi-layered, kaleidoscopic approach of God 99, Blasim succeeds in drawing a through-line that unites each of these three powerful and affecting tales, pointing at the importance of shared history, humanity and storytelling across nationalities, cultures, and time itself.
The result is one of his most powerful and affecting collections yet, trading some of the bleak horror of his early work for a tender, often hilarious, and always moving account of the stages of exile, both internal and external.’ —Bram E. Gieben, Glasgow Review of Books
