Ensimmäinen nainen

A historical novel about Sylvi Kekkonen, wife of President Urho Kekkonen, a woman who finds herself and her voice as a writer and hopes there is still time to begin a second life. Her public role hid a radical Sylvi, shy and brave, gentle and sharp, a security-seeking mother and a feminist with a taste for rebellion, who guarded her independence and kept her own friends. When one of the closest, the writer Marja-Liisa Vartio, dies in the summer of 1966, Sylvi retreats to the quiet of her cottage. Meanwhile another friend, the sculptor Essi Renvall, wonders over a sketch for a portrait how to capture Sylvi’s many sides, and whether one can ever truly know another person.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Length

261 pages in the original

Genres

Historical (assigned by AI)

Set in

Finland, 1966

First published

2019 by WSOY

Author's age

48 when first published

ISBN

9789510435700 (original)