Leena Krohn

Hildi Hawkins

TAINARON: Mail From Another City is the first American publication by the internationally acclaimed Finnish author, Leena Krohn. TAINARON consists of a series of letters sent beyond the sea from a city of insects. TAINARON is a book of changes. It speaks of metamorphoses that test all of nature from a flea to a star, from stone and grass to a human. The same irresistible force that gives us birth, also kills us. Nominated for the prestigious Finlandia prize, this is the perfect introduction to the work of a modern fabulist.

Mail from Another City

Tainaron

Peter Blegvad

Danielle Olsen

New and innovative writing inspired by the medical, scientific and sometimes downright extraordinary contents of Henry Wellcome's remarkable museum. Within this unusual and arresting book is a powerhouse of imagination created by a dazzling array of the finest writers. The Phantom Museum offers personal responses by A. S. Byatt, Tobias Hill, Peter Blegvad, Hari Kunzru, Helen Cleary and Gaby Wood to the extraordinary and little-known collection of the businessman and philanthropist Sir Henry Wellcome. Wellcome was fascinated by anthropology and the history of medicine. By the time he died in 1936, he had built up one of the world's largest and most unusual museum collections. The objects Wellcome brought together range from the ancient to the magical, from the religious to the scientific. Beautiful, mysterious or bizarre, they all illuminate the history of human beings and their bodies. Playful, disturbing and thought-provoking by turns, The Phantom Museum combines text and images, fact and fiction, comment and imagination to consider how objects can be read depending on who views them and when. Published to coincide with a major new exhibition of Wellcome's collection, this is a lasting introduction to its wonders, and a remarkable collection of new and original writing.

And Henry Wellcome's Collection of Medical Curiosities

The Phantom Museum

Olli Alho

Päivi Vallisaari

Finland is snow and ice, midnight sun and endless forest, sauna and Santa Claus. But it is much, much more. In more than 300 key words by almost 80 Finnish experts and scholars, Finland: a Cultural Encyclopedia tells what this country between East and West is made of. It shows what distinguishes Finland from the rest of the world and what unites it with it. The book introduces the central names in Finnish music, scholarship, design and architecture. It covers Finnish culture from religion to rock'n'roll, from mythology to media, from eating to education, from sisu to sex. It reveals the hidden meaning for Finns of snow, light, trees and lakes. Secure against the passions of men, and fearing nothing from the anger of the gods, they have attained that uncommon state of felicity, in which there is no craving left to form a single wish. Tacitus, Germania, A.D.98.

Finland, a Cultural Encyclopedia

Soila Lehtonen

Helsinki is both small and large, young and old. Although founded as long ago as 1550, it did not begin its urban development until the 18th century, and burst into life as a city only after it was proclaimed capital of Finland in 1912. Helsinki: A Literary Companion charts the history and life of the world's most northerly metropolis -- a vibrant maritime city whose story, like its architecture, has always been far grander than its size suggests. The writings selected for this book range from the beginning of the 19th century to the present day. Richly illustrated with archive material from Helsinki City Museum, Helsinki: A Literary Companion is the first anthology of Helsinki literature to be published in English. It includes fiction, memoirs, poetry, letters and travel writing -- translated from Finnish, Swedish, German, French and Russian, and original texts in English.

Hildi Hawkins

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