'Playful and profound... a captivating glimpse into twentieth-century Finland through the eyes of a charismatic child narrator. I loved it' Fiona Mozley

'Grandma made me take lots of naps. She believed sleep was the most important thing in the world for children. And that adults should be allowed to drink their afternoon coffee in peace.'

In this charming patchwork of fever dreams and memories, Pirkko Saisio transports us to the 1950s Finland of her youth, where she navigates life as an only child of communist parents. Convinced she will grow up to become a man, a young Pirkko keeps trying and failing to meet the expectations of the adults around her. But as she discovers that she can be the narrator of her own story, it is in language that she finds a refuge and a way to be seen at last.

In a world where mascara-streaked mermaids dodge tennis balls, a beloved green cap is stolen by the Big Bad Wolf, and the first tugs of infatuation are inspired by a swimsuit-clad circus announcer, Saisio captures the heart-wrenching intensity of childhood as it floods back in the wake of her father's death.

Deeply moving and disarmingly funny, Lowest Common Denominator is the first volume in a trilogy that has been celebrated in Finland as the best work of the century.

About the Author

Pirkko Saisio (Author)
Pirkko Saisio (born 1949) is one of Finland's most celebrated writers as well as an actor and theatre director. The author of numerous novels, plays and scripts for film and television, Saisio has been nominated for the Finlandia Prize seven times, winning it in 2003. She has, among other awards, received the Aleksis Kivi Prize and the State Literature Award. Lowest Common Denominator is the first volume in her Helsinki trilogy, followed by Backlight and The Red Book of Farewells.

Mia Spangenberg (Translator)
Mia Spangenberg translates from Finnish, Swedish and German. She is the winner of the Nadia Christensen Prize for her translation of Lowest Common Denominator.

Reviews
Playful... The voice is as charming as any good child narrative is... Her childhood is typically universal, typically unique... A bestseller in Finland. You can see why -- John Self * The Critic *
Droll, sardonic... A piquant account of a childhood and a time... Saisio sketches a poignant, funny-sad picture of a communist family in Cold War Finland. In both substance and style, comparisons with Ali Smith may come to mind -- Boyd Tonkin * Spectator *
A brilliant book, half modernist poem and half classic comic of age novel. For anyone who ever became a writer -- James Rebanks
Playful and profound, Lowest Common Denominator offers a captivating glimpse into twentieth-century Finland through the eyes of a charismatic child narrator. I loved it -- Fiona Mozley
One of Finland's greatest living authors... Lowest Common Denominator, elegantly translated by Mia Spangenberg, is the first of her works to be published in English and the first in her Helsinki trilogy, which is in the peculiarly bleak Scandinavian tradition of autofiction * New Statesman *
Like Annie Ernaux but funny -- Irene Bluche * rbbKultur *
This is both family history and contemporary political history, sexual self-discovery and artist biography... moving and clever, funny and beautiful * NZZ am Sonntag, Best Books of the Century *
If you love Deborah Levy, you'll adore Pirkko Saisio * Le Masque et la plume *
Long an object of study in Finland, Saisio's work is beginning to gain more global recognition now, cementing her place in the canon of autofiction that also includes the Nordic writers Karl Ove Knausgaard and Tove Ditlevsen -- Niina Pollari * Los Angeles Review of Books *
Saisio gives us a humorous and empathetic account of the challenge of coming to terms with the world we are born into. It's a world animated by the distances between generations, shimmering with the individuality of parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Sensual, curious, imaginative and funny, Saisio reminds us that being someone's child can be a deeply queer experience -- Anna Poletti



Book Information
ISBN 9780241730096
Author Pirkko Saisio
Format Paperback
Page Count 288
Imprint Penguin Classics
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 299g
Dimensions(mm) 215mm * 136mm * 22mm