Red Storm

Elina Hirvonen

Original title: Punainen myrsky

Author: Elina Hirvonen

Published: 2019

Publisher: WSOY

Genre: Literary Fiction

Pages: 300

Reading material:

English sample & synopsis

As a small boy grows up in Iraq ruled by Saddam Hussein, fear is always present. His father is part of an underground opposition movement that tries to overthrow the dictator. The father ends up spending years in prison, and the boy learns that just one wrong word can put his life in danger.
The family escapes to melancholy Finland, a country recovering from financial depression. It is a safe country, but the boy grows up with mixed feelings: can one be a good Muslim and a good Finnish boy? When ISIS in rising in Iraq, the boy returns to his home country as a peace negotiator, hoping to build a county where his children can travel safely to one day.

Hirvonen depicts fantasticly how the people who have fleed their homes will always bear a longing in them. The main character is able to leave his agonies behind and start a new life in a new county, but he will always long for the lost chance of happy lives with his family in his own country. One of the most important books of the year.

– Seppo Puttonen, literary critic

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Rights sold:
FINLAND: WSOY (orig.)

About author

Elina Hirvonen

Elina Hirvonen is an award-winning author of adults' and children's prose and documentary filmmaker whose works have been translated into many languages. Hirvonen’s debut novel, When I Forgot, made the front page of The New York Times Book Review, and received rave reviews from the Independent, Guardian, Financial Times and Globe and Mail.

Hirvonen has won the Kalevi Jäntti Prize, the Young Aleksis Prize, has been nominated for the prestigious Finlandia Prize. She has received the prestigious 2023 Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiö Literary Foundation Award, recognizing the artistic independence and high standard of her writing.

Her new novel, The Logbook of Love, was published in Finland in August 2023. The Logbook of Love is the first part of a trilogy of novels that create their world through conversations.

Bibliography


2024, Picture Books (0-3 Years)

Elina Hirvonen

Princess Rascal and the Dark Fairy


2023, Literary Fiction

Elina Hirvonen

The Logbook of Love


2023, Chapter Books (3-6 Years)

Elina Hirvonen

The Rescuers Julia and Charlie


2021, Middle Grade (8-12 Years)

Elina Hirvonen

Charlie and the Wombat Warriors


2021, Picture Books (0-3 Years)

Elina Hirvonen

Princess Rascal and the Quarrel Spell


2020, Middle Grade (8-12 Years)

Elina Hirvonen

Julia & P.A.L


2019, Picture Books (0-3 Years)

Elina Hirvonen

Princess Rascal and The Potty Words


2019, Literary Fiction

Elina Hirvonen

Red Storm


2017, Chapter Books (3-6 Years)

Elina Hirvonen

Princess Rascal


2015, Literary Fiction

Elina Hirvonen

When Time Runs Out


2005, Literary Fiction

Elina Hirvonen

When I Forgot