Laura Lindstedt
Laura Lindstedt (b. 1976) is a literary researcher, a critic and an essayist. She is writing her Ph.D. on the life and works of Nathalie Sarraute. Lindstedt is working on a new novel to be published in 2012.
Praises:
Laura Lindstedt’s debut novel Scissors is a complex work which stands up to scrutiny with flying colours. (…) What makes Scissors such an impressive work is precisely the way it succeeds in developing from a description of contemporary adoptive parenthood and motherhood into a discourse on fundamental issues. These issues are put forward so skilfully that the reader is assured of the significance of this kind of literature.
– Mervi Kantokorpi, Helsingin Sanomat
Whatever the genre, from year to year the quality of debut novels increases. One example is Scissors, the first novel of Laura Lindstedt, 31, which is a truly professional work, with particularly rich language. She was a writer before she ever wrote her first novel.
– Jorma Heinonen, Keskisuomalainen
Scissors is a debut novel that manifests both a great command of language and structure and a skillful ability to manipulate plot.
– Ville Miettinen, Kymen Sanomat
Reading this book, it is impossible not to be impressed by Lindstedt’s ability to construct a tale from enigmatic materials.
– Terhi Hannula, Turun Sanomat
Written by Laura Lindstedt
Scissors
Laura Lindstedt’s impressive novel Scissors succeeds in developing from a description of contemporary adoptive parenthood and motherhood into a discourse on fundamental issues.
Scissors is a story of a woman, Maria, who adopts a little girl from China. Great expectations and the desire to love turn to inadequateness before the child’s blank stare. What happens if a child doesn’t respond at all? Or if the mother and the child are afraid of each other?
Lindstedt writes boldly about a woman’s life and the need to love one’s child. The novel discusses sensitive matters that are not often talked about: the distance between child and parent, the fear of failure and finally a mother’s mental instability.
Scissors manifests both a great command of language and structure and a skilful ability to manipulate plot.
Shortlisted for the Finlandia Prize 2007
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