36 Urns

Winner of the Finlandia Prize 2023, 36 Urns is a profound exploration of memory, love, and intergenerational trauma. In this deeply personal narrative, Sirpa Kähkönen delves into the life of her mother, Riitta, a woman who longed for love yet struggled to accept it. Through her mother’s diaries, Kähkönen vividly reconstructs 1950s Finland, portraying Riitta’s youthful dreams, the devastating impact of a life-altering accident, and her later battles with mental health. The book also traces the silent grief of their family for relatives lost to Stalin’s purges, weaving personal and historical threads into a rich tapestry of resilience and reconciliation.

The title refers to the family burial plot’s capacity for 36 urns, with Kähkönen symbolically filling her mother’s final journey with 35 objects representing fragments of her life. Combining memoir, history, and poetic reflection, 36 Urns is a tribute to the power of storytelling to heal and preserve the fragile threads of identity and legacy. It cements Kähkönen’s reputation as a masterful chronicler of Finnish history and the human spirit.