The Last Days of Maiju Lassila - Paperback
Pay over time for orders over $35.00 with
Offers & Perks
Earn 12 points with this purchase
Added to your rewards balance after checkout.
100 points welcome bonus
Create an account and start with extra points.
Who wrote this novel?
J I Vatanen was not a real person; he was a heteronym-a characterized pseudonym-of a strange Finnish author named Algot Untola, who was arrested as a Red agitator at the end of the Finnish Civil War in May, 1918, and summarily sentenced and shot.
This novel is "J I Vatanen's" "memoir" of the events leading up to that violent death and its tragicomic aftermath.
But who wrote it?
Douglas Robinson, a noted Finnish-English translator and translation scholar, claims that he "pseudotranslated" it-but what does that mean? A pseudotranslation is a hoax translation, one with no original. But if the hoaxer declares the hoax up front, is it still a hoax?
The Last Days of Maiju Lassila is a readable story with its backdrop in a volatile political history from the 1880s to 1919; but it is also an experimental memoir/novel/translation that toys with our "certainty" about reality.
Free shipping on orders over $75. Standard shipping takes 3-7 business days. Eligible items may be returned within 30 days of delivery. Conditions apply.