Original title: Yksin
Author: Karo Hämäläinen
Published: 2015
Publisher: WSOY
Genres: Literary Fiction, Crime & Suspense
Pages: 238
Reading material:
Finnish text
English sample
Alone is a psychologically precise portrait of a top athlete, who had a burning will to succeed and a manic hatred of losing. He raced against his inner demons to meet the high standards he had set for himself and achieved everything in life – except for one thing. Alone is a story of loneliness and unrecruited love.
Karo Hämäläinen’s award-winning novel is loosely based on the life story of the greatest distance runner of all times, the “Flying Finn” Paavo Nurmi, who ran his way to the top of the world in the 1920’s. It reads as a literary novel set against the backdrop of the rapidly industrializing Finland of the 20th century, echoing “Running” by Jean Echenoz.