A best-seller that featured in the Top 20 list of 2013
“Sophisticated and powerful.”– Lily literary blog
“Kallio is an expert in putting into words feelings that lie just underneath the surface.”
– Image magazine
AN ACCIDENTAL CLARITY
SÄKENÖIVÄT HETKET, 2013, OTAVA
“Life is not my bravura.”
In summer 1914 young Elly visits the luxurious bathing resort of Hanko, Southern Finland, with her misfit, outcast mother Inga. In a new place, with new people and a new identity, Elly finally seems to be on the verge of having everything she ever wanted in life. Then World War I breaks out and reveals the reality behind the sumptuous facade. The consequences of shame and inequality will have an effect on many generations to come, especially on Elly’s daughters, Beata and Harriet, and mark out their destiny.
“A brilliant novel about love. Katja Kallio is one of the best writers in Finland today.”
– Etelä-Saimaa News
“Kallio examines love and, in particular, friendship between girls beautifully and layer by layer.”– Turun Sanomat
“In this novel, history appears as a periodically awakening monster, showing humans who is in charge.” – Pohjalainen
A best-seller that featured in the Top 20 list of 2017
“A brilliant novel (…) Kallio goes deeper into her familiar themes, asking what love actually is, why do we destruct when it’s such a hardship to rebuild and to heal, and why do we let ourselves be destructed? She goes on to ask what is a normal way to react to the destructiveness of love, what is madness and who has the right to define it?” – Aamulehti
“Kallio draws a vivid and heartbreaking picture of what it means to be unstable, lonely and an outsider.” – Eeva magazine
Timelessly explores the condition of deprivation and of being an outsider, and the invisible past of the Finnish woman.” – Radio Helsinki
AMANDA OF THE NIGHT
YÖN KANTAJA, 2017, OTAVA
“Don’t tell anyone. That’s what she used to say whenever she told anybody anything about herself. But what if that was a mistake? Maybe she should instead have said: tell everybody.”
Based on true events, the critically acclaimed novel tells the fin-de-siécle story of young Finnish Amanda, a misfit girl who has no intention of submitting to her poor woman’s destiny, but seeks her happiness in freedom, and travels to Paris as a hot air balloon aeronaut’s mistress. But poverty is poverty everywhere, and the hardships of life force Amanda into a remote island hospital for mentally insane, homeless and socially challenged women. On Seili Island, Amanda must fight for a dignified life, but she also finds her first true love.
“Even though the novel is set at the end of the 19th century, Kallio depicts a modern woman in a modern way. (…) To an experienced storyteller the hierarchy of a mental institution is a delectable theme: attachments, love and hate are created in the same way as in female prisons in television series. (…) The restricted milieu makes Amanda an acute observer, a skilled concealer of emotions, and a stealthy manipulator. (…) At the end she is increasingly like a literary artist herself, watching life through metaphors, blurring the line between the real and the imagined, and bearing the painful experiences of the others.”
– Helsingin Sanomat
“Thrilling.” – Helsingin Sanomat
“When I heard there would be another movie book by Kallio, I was both thrilled and terrified. How wonderful, more thoughts about movies by Kallio! But wouldn’t it be horrible if the book is not as lovely as Cinematographic Memory (2009)! But the moment I opened Screen Shots my fears vanished. The book is just as wonderful as Cinematographic Memory. It flows from one theme to the next with the same effortless ease, combining life and movies, the light and heavy, the trivial and the larger than life.” – Luetut ja lukemattomat literary blog
“And she writes so wonderfully that at the end I cry, both times, because only movies can be this miraculous and gigantic.” – Helmi Kekkonen, novelist and blogger
SCREEN SHOTS
VALKOKANGASTUKSIA, 2019, OTAVA
"A French movie does wonders for a woman."
For more than 15 years, Katja has been a regular contributor to the prestigious Image magazine, writing movie columns. In Screen Shots, she writes about her favourite European, American and Asian movies and TV series, actors and directors. In a personal and intimate way she declares her love for the art of cinema, and describes the importance of sharing it with her friends, her husband and her two daughters, and becoming part of a whole in the process.
Featured directors:
Pedro Almodóvar * Paul Thomas Anderson * Sofia Coppola * Julie Delpy * Claire Denis * Ildikó Enyedi *Asghar Farhadi * Anne Fontaine * Michael Haneke * Aki Kaurismäki * Boris Khlebnikov * Krzystzof Kieslowski * Richard Linklater * Ken Loach * Louis Malle * Hayao Miyazaki * Kórnel Mundruczó * Christian Mungiu * László Nemes * Francois Ozon * Pawel Pawlikowski * Christian Petzold * Martin Provost * Lynne Ramsay * Eric Rohmer * Whit Stillman * Francois Truffaut
Featured films & series incl.:
Band of Brothers * Boyhood * Breaking Bad * Claire’s Knee * Elisa di Rivombrosa * Frances Ha * Frantz * Homeland * Ida * I, Daniel Blake * L’Amour * Le Havre * León * Phantom Thread * Somewhere * Son of Saul * Sound of Music * The Wire
Featured actresses / actors incl.:
Juliette Binoche * Daniel Day-Lewis * Catherine Deneuve * Greta Gerwig * Damian Lewis * Alan Rickman * Anne Archer * Russell Crowe * Ralph Fiennes * Natalie Portman * Tahar Rahim * Tilda Swinton * Mia Wasikowska
”As far as I know, nobody before Kallio has succeeded in figuring out why exactly do we need movies so much.” – Metro
CINEMA
TOGRAPHIC MEMORY
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ELOKUVAMUISTI, 2009, OTAVA
“If I see a truly wonderful movie, I never tell anybody about it.”
A personal account of jealous love for movies and a coming-of-age story based on films seen over the years, from Walt Disney’s Lady and a Tramp, Sound of Music, Some Like it Hot, from Gangs of New York to The Lord of the Rings.
Featured films & series incl. also:
A Fish Called Wanda * All about Eve * Amarcord * Angels in America * Annie Hall * Aristocats * Being John Malkovich * Betty Blue * Body Heat * Casablanca * Goodfellows * The Lion King * Lost in Translation * Manhattan * Moonstruck * Notting Hill * The Age of Innocence * The Bold and the Beautiful * The English Patient * There’s Something about Mary * The Sopranos * Titanic * Traffic * When Harry Met Sally
SHIP-WRECKED
KARILLA, 2007, OTAVA
One fine day the police knock at Katariina’s door to inform her that her charming father has passed away in sad circumstances. As if this wasn’t enough, Katariina, who is a mother and a wife, also learns she has three half-siblings, as her father has four children with four women who had no idea of the existence of each other. In this subtly written novel, family drama leads Katariina into a full-blown identity crisis, and shows that it is possible for everything you know to be true to change in the blink of an eye.
“A darkly shimmering, touching and powerful family saga.” – Bücher Magazine
THE BOOK OF SINS
SYNTIKIRJA, 2009, OTAVA
What if you discovered one day during a doctor’s appointment that you were supposed to be a twin, but your sibling disappeared in utero and left you alone? Who is to blame, you or your mother? This modern family story of the fleetingness of love and awkward motherhood was a critical success.
“An absolutely wonderful novel about mercy.”
– Helsingin Sanomat
GUYS
TYYPIT, 2007, OTAVA
This petite classic is a hilarious collection of the recurrent and recognisable characters in a woman’s life, including The Crazy Friend, The Babysitter, The Italian Boyfriend, The Cleaning Lady, The Hairdresser, Husband’s ex-girlfriend, International Showgirl and MC Knowledge.
“Utterly hilarious!” – Gloria magazine
LOVERS & LEAVERS
KUUTAMOLLA, 2000, OTAVA
The best-selling debut novel, "a restless tale of love’s hardships” experienced by the solitary, movie-loving Iris.
More than 40 000 copies sold; made into a box office movie with 215 000 tickets sold, and nominated for the Jussi Prize in several categories, including best picture.
“Swift, agile and charming.” – Tv-maailma
“Kallio is an absolutely hilarious writer!”
– Suvi Ahola, Helsingin Sanomat
PLAYING SOLO
SOOLOILUA, 2000, OTAVA
The urban love story of the young journalist Emma and the up-and-coming classical music conductor star Joel Abrahamsson becomes a troubled threesome when Emma has to take care of Joel’s mother who has dementia.
The novel was a best seller and was made into a box office feature film, which had 228 000 viewers. The movie was nominated for the Jussi Prize in several categories, including best picture and best screenplay, written by Katja Kallio herself. The actress Kristiina Elstelä won the prize for Best Supporting Actress for the role of the mother-in-law.