Finnish Literature

I got a request the other day for a or a few quintessential Finnish books, those that capture the Finnish psych or those that have stood the test of time and become the books of the nation. While you might consider the national epic The Kalevala, it would actually miss the point in that it needs to have author, style and content to qualify.

Actually qualifying the criteria is almost impossible so it is a lot easier to specify the books by example and the quality properties be extracted or inferred from those.

There are three books:

• Aleksis Kivi, Seitsemän Veljestä (Seven Brothers)
• Mikä Waltari, Sinuhe, Egyptiläinen (The Egyptian)
• Väinö Linna, Tuntamaton Sotilas (The Unknown Soldier)

Translations in other languages are available.