We are extremely happy to announce our new author Juha Itkonen! Please join us in welcoming Juha Itkonen on board.

Juha Itkonen (b. 1975) is one of his generation’s most recognized authors in Finland. Itkonen has written eight novels, a collection of novellas, a children’s book, an epistolary novel together with Kjell Westö and several plays. His works have been translated into Swedish, Norwegian, German, and Danish. His previous work “Everything Is A Miracle” (Ihmettä kaikki, Otava, 2018) was nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2020.

Itkonen has won several Finnish literary prizes and earned two Finlandia Prize nominations. He lives in Helsinki’s Arabianranta together with his wife Maija Itkonen and four children. Families, generations, and parenthood are regular themes in his novels, including in his newest work ‘Everything Was Theirs’ (Kaikki oli heidän, Otava 2021). Itkonen loves music, both as a listener and a player, which shows in his books. The passing of time is an eternal mystery at the core of his writing – his novels tend to have a melancholy undertow, yet they are also filled with life, humor, and energy.

EVERYTHING WAS THEIRS by Juha Itkonen

A poignant and frenzied novel about the masculine ego and the end of the world that inspects people’s capability to love, yet also the inability to nurture the happiness that one has gained.

Vilho’s father Ilmari, a forty-something theater director, is according to his own view balancing successfully between the push-and-pull of career and family life. However, the tranquil peace of the wooden house is upset when his widowed grandfather temporarily moves to live with the four-member family. Thirty years later, in a wholly changed world, the lived life of the early 2000s and the choices made then appear in a new, harsh light. Where did their days disappear?

EXCERPT:
“Especially during these times, everyone desired so much from both their lives and the world – desired everything. No one wanted to admit it, but all of them were about to crash into a wall.”

PRAISE:
”Itkonen develops a balanced and fascinating story of men in three generations that succeeds in being timely yet timeless.”
“The plot grips you, the language is pure satin, and the characters feel evocative.” – Etelä-Suomen Sanomat

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