HUMOROUS LITERATURE World Humor Awards “Premio Giovannino Guareschi”

Arto Paasilinna was born in a truck Kittilä in Finnish Lapland, April 20, 1942. In full flight, his family fleeing the Germans are driven to Norway and Sweden and Lapland. Paasilinna (“stone fortress” in Finnish) is a name invented by his father, who was angry with his parents to change its name.

“I had four different states in my early youth. The leak has become a constant in my stories, but there is something positive in the leak, if before there was fighting. “

From the age of thirteen, he took various jobs, including a woodcutter and a farm laborer. “I was a boy of forests, working the land, timber, fishing, hunting, the whole culture that is found in my books. I was float wood on rivers in the north, a sort of aristocracy of these homeless fixed, I moved from physical labor to a journalist, I went to the forest to the city. Journalist, I wrote thousands of articles seriously, it’s a good practice to write more interesting things. “

In 1962 – 1963, he studied general education at the Graduate School of Education People of Lapland, then as an intern between regional newspaper Lapin Kansa (the Sami people).

He worked from 1963 to 1988 in various newspapers and literary magazines. Also author of twenty novels translated into many countries, Arto Paasilinna is a screenwriter for film and television. He is interested in graphic arts and writing poems.

Figurehead of Finnish literature, Arto Paasilinna has won favor in recent years a loyal audience with an original work, populated by strange characters, but also by a sense of humor and storytelling rare.

Let’s face it immediately, while among Paasilinna, is that repetition is what gives it its charm, the repetition of a recipe which he alone knows the secret.

Since the publication of Hare Vatanen, the novel that has truly launched, the writer from Lapland likes to send his characters walk around in Finland, like vagrants existentialists went in search of little nothing missing their life: freedom.

“The Finns are no worse than others, but bad enough that I have something to write until the end of my days. “

Ex guardiaboschi, ex giornalista, ex poeta, Arto Paasilinna è nato a Kittilä nel 1942. Autore di culto in Finlandia, è molto amato anche all’estero per il travolgente humour e la capacità di raccontare ridendo anche le storie più tragiche. Dopo L’anno della lepre, che ha superato le 120mila copie in Italia, Iperborea ha pubblicato altri quindici romanzi, l’ultimo dei quali è La prima moglie e altre cianfrusaglie.

I libri di Paasilinna generalmente riflettono la vita comune finlandese, con uno stile impregnato di forte humour. Nelle sue opere traspare anche la difesa dell’ambiente e della vita naturale. È uno degli scrittori finlandesi più conosciuti all’estero, dal momento che parte della sua produzione è stata tradotta in 45 lingue. In Italia è pubblicato fin dal 1994 dalla casa editrice Iperborea.

Opere tradotte in italiano

L’anno della lepre (ed. orig. Jäniksen vuosi, 1975, trad. it. 1994), Iperborea, ISBN 88-7091-040-7

Il bosco delle volpi (ed. orig. Hirtettyjen kettujen metsä, 1983, trad. it. 1996), Iperborea, ISBN 88-7091-057-1, Guanda ISBN 88-8246-252-8

Il mugnaio urlante (ed. orig. Ulvova mylläri, 1981, trad. it. 1997), Iperborea ISBN 88-7091-066-0, Guanda ISBN 88-8246-634-5

Il figlio del dio del tuono (ed. orig. Ukkosenjumalan poika, 1984, trad. it. 1998), Iperborea, ISBN 88-7091-074-1

Lo smemorato di Tapiola (ed. orig. Elämä lyhyt, Rytkönen pitkä, 1991, trad. it. 2001), Iperborea, ISBN 88-7091-098-9

I veleni della dolce Linnea (ed. orig. Suloinen myrkynkeittäjä, 1988, trad. it. 2003), Iperborea, ISBN 88-7091-117-9

Piccoli suicidi tra amici (ed. orig. Hurmaava joukkoitsemurha, 1990, trad. it. 2006), Iperborea, ISBN 88-7091-139-X

Il migliore amico dell’orso (ed. orig. Rovasti Huuskosen petomainen miespalvelija, 1995, trad. it. 2008), Iperborea ISBN 88-7095-162-6

Prigionieri del paradiso (ed. orig. Paratiisisaaren vangit, 1974, trad. it. 2009), Iperborea ISBN 978-88-7091-177-0

L’allegra apocalisse (ed. orig. Maailman paras kylä, 1992, trad. it. 2010) Iperborea ISBN 978-88-7091-189-3

Le dieci donne del cavaliere (ed. orig. Kymmenen riivinrautaa, 2001, trad. it. 2011) Iperborea ISBN 978-88-7091-500-6

Sangue caldo, nervi d’acciaio (ed. orig. Kylmät hermot, kuuma veri , 2006, trad it 2012) Iperborea ISBN 978-88-7091-509-9

La fattoria dei malfattori (ed. orig. Hirttämättömien lurjusten yrttitarha , 1998, trad it 2013) Iperborea ISBN 978-88-7091-523-5

Professione angelo custode (ed. orig. Tohelo suojelusenkeli, 2004, trad it 2014) Iperborea ISBN 978-88-7091-536-5

Il liberatore dei popoli oppressi (ed. orig. Vapahtaja Surunen, 1986 trad it 2015) Iperborea ISBN 978-88-7091-454-2

Riconoscimenti

1994 – Premio letterario Giuseppe Acerbi per il romanzo L’anno della lepre.