The Red Book of Farewells

Authors: Pirkko Saisio & Mia Spangenberg

Of specific Lesbian interest | Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) | Fiction in translation

Published on 27^th August 2026 by Penguin Books Ltd (Penguin Classics) in the United Kingdom as part of the 'Penguin International Writers' series.

Paperback / softback | 320 pages
215mm x 134mm | 600g

'A Finnish masterpiece of autofiction... Saisio's Helsinki trilogy is a dreamy, complex and therefore so very human portrait of the formation of a great artist' Financial Times‘This is where she would like to belong, here in the kingdom of women, where words are sharp but gazes are soft.’In 1970s Helsinki, a revolutionary storm is blowing through Pirkko Saisio’s university. She has moved out of her family home, joined a communist theatre, and fallen in love for the first time. Her newly shaved head looks unmistakably modern, and Bertold Brecht lives on her windowsill to profess God-like words of wisdom.

Playful, moving and original, this autofictional coming-of-age story embeds the reader in a world where art and activism are irrevocably intertwined, and where queer love, still a crime, thrives in underground bars.

In her mesmerizing account of radical politics and sexual awakening, Pirkko Saisio offers a series of farewells, to her mother, to the idealism of youth, to friends and lovers, and finally to her grown daughter. The grand finale of the award-winning Helsinki trilogy, The Red Book of Farewells embraces the revolutionary potential of moving on.

Translated from Finnish by Mia Spangenberg