The Magician's Daughters

Emmi Pesonen

Original title: Taikurin tyttäret

Author: Emmi Pesonen

Published: 2022

Publisher: Otava

Genre: Literary Fiction

Pages: 267

Reading material:

Egnlish sample & synopsis

A magical novel about two sisters who grow up in different families.

As children, Linda and her little sister Magda follow, in secret, how their father hypnotizes his customers. The girls listen to their most secret wishes, forbidden emotions, and dreamlike memories. The girls also act as statisticians and audience for their father’s magic tricks, and through it all, they love each other fiercely.

But their parents end up divorcing, and the two sisters are torn away from each other. Magda lives with her mother, drifts around in Helsinki, and ends up in a relationship with an adult man. Linda grows up with her father and gets the opportunity to try to reach her dreams of being an artist and to have her own family.

Years later, Linda’s daughter Indra finds her hypnotist grandfather’s box with contents that surprise her. Indra needs to face her memories: are they true or make-believe?

Emmi Pesonen’s The Magician’s Daughters takes a skillful deep dive into the essence of memories, the heavy weight of family, the complex cores of relationships. [–] Pesonen carries the story well, and the clear narration gives it space without extra flourishes. And the best thing is that The Magician’s Daughters stays in one’s mind for a long while.

Johanna Suominen, Savon Sanomat

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Rights sold:
FINLAND: Otava (orig.)

About author

Emmi Pesonen

Emmi Pesonen (1977) is a Helsinki-based writer, screenwriter and actress. She graduated in 2001 as a Master of Theater Arts and has worked as an actor in several in theaters, movies, and TV series. Pesonen is bilingual (Finnish-Swedish) and she has translated and dramatized Swedish-language plays. She is also the screenwriter of a movie The Violin Player (Violinist, Mjölk Movies), which premiered in Finland in 2018, and has toured successfully at more than 20 film festivals around the world (including Gothenburg, Moscow, Singapore, Kaliningrad). The film deals with power structures in the art world, passion and giving up.  The Most Beautiful Word (Otava, August 2020) is Pesonen’s debut novel. The book tells a story of a patchwork family from the point of view of the new step-mother. It’s a story of endless love, irreversible decision and learning new things. The movie rights have been optioned by Aurora Studios and a film is currently being developed.

Bibliography


2022, Literary Fiction

Emmi Pesonen

The Magician's Daughters


2020, Commercial/Upmarket

Emmi Pesonen

The Most Beautiful Word