High-Rise

Hanna-Riikka Kuisma

Original title: Kerrostalo

Author: Hanna-Riikka Kuisma

Published: 2019

Publisher: Like

Genre: Literary Fiction

Pages: 333

Reading material:

English sample & synopsis

Trainspotting meets City of Gods in a suburban apartment building. Critical success and Finlandia Prize nominee in 2019.

When the high-rise was new it was the pride of the city, an example of modern living, a beacon of a brighter future. But today you won’t find happy homes, stylish decorations or successful people in this building. It has become the residence for those who struggle. In this concrete jungle, everything is connected and lives are fragmented, memories shattered by violence and substances.

With multiple narrators, Hanna-Riikka Kuisma paints a hyperrealistic picture of a modern slum - mesmerizing the reader like the best kind of thriller. And not far from Dostoyevsky’s nightmarish and dreamy basement writings.

– Satakunnan Kansa newspaper

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FINLAND: Like (orig.)

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About author

Hanna-Riikka Kuisma

Hanna-Riikka Kuisma (b. 1978) is a Pori-based writer, art critic and columnist. Kuisma is known for exploring the darkness of the human mind and our contemporary society. She has published seven novels and a collection of short stories. Her latest novel TREATMENT was nominated for the 2024 Finlandia Prize in Fiction.

Kuisma's fifth novel, HIGH RISE, was nominated for the Finlandia Prize for Fiction in 2019, and in the same year she was awarded the Satakunta Arts Council's Art Prize. In 2021, she was awarded the Nortamo Prize for Literature.

Kuisma's debut collection of short stories, Elinkautinen, was published in 2005. Since then, she has published the novels Snake's Nest, Heart Shadow, White Light, Fifth Season, Apartment House, Guilty and Reparative Care. The Fifth Season was nominated for the Tiiliskivi Literary Prize.

The blackly intense atmosphere and surgical precision of Kuisma's works are counterbalanced by colourful visuals and poetic language. Her literary contemporaries include Juha Seppälä, Asko Sahlberg and Hanna Marjut Marttila.

Bibliography


2024, Literary Fiction

Hanna-Riikka Kuisma

Treatment


2019, Literary Fiction

Hanna-Riikka Kuisma

High-Rise