Teo

As a little boy Teo asks what his name means, and his mother Leena tells him it means doomed to live the right way. He is made so that he cannot stand rivalry or looking after himself, and he discovers early that only helping others for nothing makes him truly happy. So he never stops helping, and many people find him tiresome. As an adult he is more and more alone, and only his sister Arja still has patience for him. Teo sets out to save her husband Jali, a high-flying workaholic, by remaking him: Jali has to learn to slow down, keep quiet and listen, and he practises with a reading circle of men in Kontula. Meanwhile Arja, on a trip to the Netherlands, falls into a love affair that changes what matters to her. The novel completes a loose trilogy set in Kontula and Vartiokylä in east Helsinki.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Length

182 pages in the original

Genres

Family (assigned by AI)

Set in

Finland, Netherlands

First published

2000 by Gummerus

Author's age

38 when first published

ISBN

9789512057900 (original)