Poetry
The Love Story of the Century
Århundradets kärlekssaga
Märta Tikkanen · 1978
Synopsis
A verse novel in three parts, in which a woman addresses her husband directly. The first tells of life with an alcoholic; the second, with an unpredictable, unfaithful man who sometimes hits her; the third places the speaker among her mother, her grandmother and other women caught in destructive bonds. Four children, a job, the need to exist for herself: she curses alcohol, cries out her exhaustion and demands to be seen and believed, and love remains.
Context
These texts were not intended for publication. They respond to the autobiographical narratives in which Henrik Tikkanen had told the story of their life together without sparing her or himself; the editions carry his drawings. Published by Söderström in 1978, the book has been translated into nineteen languages and has sold more than one hundred and forty thousand copies in Sweden. It has been adapted for radio, television and some fifty German stages. Philippe Bouquet translated it into French in 2011; Cambourakis acquired the rights in 2022.
Who it is for
A book in Swedish, readable in French and in English; short lines and sentences that run on without punctuation.
Prizes and reception
A classic of Finnish literature, the most translated of her books; it made her the elder voice of the women's movement in the North.