Born 1957 · Finland
Finlandia 2015 · Shortlist
Title translated by AI:“Breathing Space”
Kari Hotakainen · 58 when first published
Novel · 199 pages · Crime, Love
AI-generated summary:A detective superintendent joins a mixed choir to take his mind off work, but two fellow singers, a church verger and a hairdresser, are bound together by money troubles, fading love and dark secrets.
Finlandia 2009 · Shortlist
Ihmisen osa
Kari Hotakainen · 52 when first published
Novel · 253 pages · Family, Satire
AI-generated summary:Salme Malmikunnas, a retired yarn seller who never reads novels, meets an author at a book fair who has no ideas left. He offers her 7,000 euros for her life story, and she accepts, needing the money.
Finlandia 2006 · Shortlist
Title translated by AI:“The Careless”
Kari Hotakainen · 49 when first published
Novel · 267 pages · Love, Crime
AI-generated summary:Leila Korhonen runs a one-woman firm in Helsinki that sells lonely men tenderness and closeness, but not sex. When a regular client goes missing, she is questioned by Antero Mokka, a detective who has long gone without a woman's touch.
Finlandia 2002 · Winner
Title translated by AI:“Trench Road”
Kari Hotakainen · 45 when first published
Novel · 334 pages · Family, Satire
AI-generated summary:After a single blow drives his wife and daughter out, Matti Virtanen, a stay-at-home father in north Helsinki, resolves to win them back by getting the family the detached house of his wife's dreams.