Welcome to Modern Finnish Writers!
The database includes the authors’ personal details and introduces their work. The sources selected for further reading are mainly web-based, but there are references to other documents as well. Some texts on these web pages have been especially written for the database by the authors. The English pages are not identical to the Finnish and Swedish ones, as they mainly focus on authors whose work has been translated into English.
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This section is only in Finnish!
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The birthday present
The boy was looking forward eagerly to his birthday. He'd be seventeen, and had asked for a motorcycle. When he didn't get one, he went into a huff and withdrew to his room to sulk. His parents let him mope, but next day his mother knocked on the door and asked him to join them for lunch.
The boy didn't answer.
Dinner time came and his father ordered him to the table. When the boy didn't reply, his father started to explain: "You must understand that we couldn't get you a motorcycle. Our flat has a heavy mortgage, but next year, when the debt is cleared, things will be different. Please come now, the soup is getting cold."
"No, I won't," whimpered the boy.
On the third morning his sister knocked on the door. "It's me, open up. Let's talk."
"No, I won't."
"We must go to school," his sister went on, coaxing.
"Then go," said the boy.
"Are you hungry?"
"Yes."
"Shall I get you something?" tried his sister.
"If you like."
"What do you want?"
"Doesn't matter. Toast."
His sister went to the kitchen, and made some delicious sandwiches and fresh coffee. Smiling, she knocked on the door. "Leave it on the floor," her brother growled.
When the foot-steps disappeared, the boy opened the door and lifted the tray into his room.
Mother and father took it in turns to chat through the door, to tell the latest news or to tempt him to join the garden party next door. The boy didn't even whimper to his parents; only to his sister did he say anything. After a month the girl was allowed into the room when she brought food, but her brother didn't start to eat before he was on his own.
After a second month the sister was allowed to bring books and magazines with the food. The boy already had a radio, as well as his own bathroom, so he didn't really need to get out.
"Would you like a television?" the father asked after a couple of years, but the boy stayed mute. "Would you like a motorcycle?" asked the father during the third year. He got no reply.
Time passed. The sister didn't pursue any studies. She didn't get married. She simply couldn't. She was needed at home.
Every year she bakes a birthday-cake for her brother. It has to be big to take all the candles. Last time there were forty-two.
A short story published in Käpylä-lehti in 1999
Translated by Britt & Philip Gaut
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