Kjell Westö
Kjell Anders Westö (born August 6, 1961 in Helsinki , Finland ) is a Finnish writer .
Life
Kjell Westö belongs to the Swedish minority in Finland. He is a Finland Swede . His younger brother is the writer Mårten Westö . He studied at the Swedish Social and Communal University in Helsinki. In the late 1980s, Westö made his debut as a poet and wrote a few short stories before making his novel debut with Drakarna över Helsingfors in 1996 . A year later he was awarded the Thank You for the Book medal for this. A film adaptation of the material followed in 2001 in a Swedish-Finnish co-production after a production by Peter Lindholm with Pirkka-Pekka Petelius and Peter Franzén in the leading roles. Since then, he has dealt thematically with the ambivalent relationship between the Swedish-speaking minority and the Finnish-speaking majority in Finland.
His second novel Vådan av att vara Skrake , published in 2000, was first published in German . Based on a translation by Paul Berf , Munich-based btb Verlag published the book under the title On Risk to Be a Skrake .
criticism
- With his novel “Where we once went”, the writer Kjell Westö created a great moral picture of Finnish society in the first half of the 20th century.
- to the novel "Trugbild" Kjell Westö's story is an urban history that spans the whole of society, a counterpart to Ulla-Lena Lundberg's micro-story of rural seclusion on Kökar. But despite all the differences, both are carried by a calm and deep narrative mode, a decelerated view of people and history, as is probably typical for Finnish literature and its protagonists.
- About the novel: On the risk of being a Skrake : “A great novel about life in Finland in the 20th century”.
Awards (selection)
- 2006 Finlandia Prize for Där vi en gång gått
- 2014 Swedish Radio Novel Prize for Hägring 38
- 2014 Literature Prize of the Nordic Council for Hägring 38
- 2014 Aniara Prize
- 2014 Grand Prix of Samfundet De Nio
- 2017 BMF badge for Den svavelgula himlen
- 2018 Tollanderska priset
- 2018 Finland Prize from the Swedish Academy
Works
Novels
- Drakarna över Helsingfors (1996).
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Vådan av att vara Skrake (2000).
- The risk of being a skrake . Munich, btb 2005. ISBN 3-442-75124-1 .
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Lang (2002).
- The drumming of the rain . Munich, btb 2008. ISBN 978-3-442-73763-5 .
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Där vi en gång gått (2006).
- Where we once went . Munich, btb 2008. ISBN 978-3-442-75197-6 .
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Gå inte ensam ut i natten (2009).
- Don't go lonely into the night . Munich, btb 2013. ISBN 978-3-442-75282-9 .
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Hägring 38 (2013).
- The mirage. Novel . Munich, btb 2014. ISBN 978-3-442-75431-1 .
- Den svavelgula himlen (2017).
Short stories
- Utslag and andra noveller (1989)
- Fall Bruus. Tre berättelser (1992)
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Lugna favoriter (2004)
- Aunt Elsie and my last summer. Selected stories . Munich, btb 2006. ISBN 3-442-73433-9
- Sprickor: valda texter 1986–2011 (2011)
Poems
- Tango Orange (1986)
- Epitaf över Mr. Night (1988)
- Avig-Bon (1989)
Web links
- Literature by and about Kjell Westö in the catalog of the German National Library
- Kjell Westö in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Portrait of Kjell Westö at www.randomhouse.de
- Kjell Westö in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Tagesspiegel October 11, 2008 (Berlin)
- ↑ TAZ.de (taken from January 21, 2015)
- ^ Norbert Kühne , Medienhaus Bauer / Marler Zeitung and 5 other issues, Marl, February 5, 2015
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Westö, Kjell |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Westö, Kjell Anders (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Finnish writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 6, 1961 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Helsinki |