The rising star of Finnish literature, Miki Liukkonen, died at the age of 33 – Liberation

2023-07-06 16:49:55

His publishing house announced on Wednesday July 5 the death of the author considered one of the most brilliant feathers of the Finnish literary scene. She did not reveal the cause of death but he himself had mentioned mental health problems.

Considered one of the most promising Finnish feathers, Miki Liukkonen died at the age of 33, his publishing house, WSOY, announced on Wednesday July 5. He had already published three collections of poems, four novels and a graphic novel. The cause of death was not disclosed by the publisher, who invokes the respect for the privacy of the family of the writer, but the latter had recently mentioned his mental health problems on social networks.

Miki Liukkonen leaves behind him works hailed by national and foreign critics, and crowned with several prizes. Released in 2017, “O”, a nearly 1,000-page novel, was in the running that year for the Finlandia Prize, the country’s most prestigious literary prize. In this extraordinary project, this successful monster novel, Miki Liukkonen had worked to depict, over seven days, the daily life of 100 characters, all suffering from psychosis.

The plots unfold in a game intertwined with digressions, memories, anecdotes and mise en abyme. He tells the story of a swimming team preparing for the Olympic Games, that of a company that designs slides in an artistic approach, that of a circus of neurotics or even that of a man who an eggplant cult. But above all, Miki Liukkonen then wondered about the meaning of everyday life in our society, and the possibility of surviving it.

Liukkonen’s writings combine “the winds of international experimental literature with a virtuoso mastery of the Finnish language”, his publisher says in his press release, adding that his works are imbued with “sumptuous metaphors and obsessive people trying to find their way , alive, through life”.

“All I can do is lie on the floor”

Beyond writing, the young man was the guitarist of the alternative rock group “The Scenes”, and presented a television show where he met people whose life choices interested him.

Miki Liukkonen was also openly discussing her mental health issues. At the end of May, he explained in an Instagram post the difficulties he had recently encountered: “All I can do is lie on the ground and exhale this bad feeling, before seeing it come back in an instant. “. His fifth novel “Vierastila” will be published posthumously in the fall.