Kjell Westö

Birth : 1961-08-06, Helsinki, Finland

History

Kjell Anders Westö, born August 6, 1961, in Helsinki, is a Finnish-Swedish author. He made his debut as a poet in 1986 but quickly switched to writing short stories and eventually to novels. He made his breakthrough with the novel Drakarna över Helsingfors (1996), which together with Vådan av att vara Skrake (2000), Där vi en gång gått (2006) and Gå inte ensam ut i natten (2009) form a suite of stand-alone novels about Helsinki. Westö received the Finlandia Prize in 2006 for Där vi en gång gått and in 2014 he was awarded the Nordic Council Literature Prize for Hägring 38.

Profile

Movies

Yellow Sulphur Sky

Novel

In his youth, the author Frej has already found a deep connection and passion with an upper-class girl, Stella Rabell, that has lasted between them through the decades. When Stella's older brother Alex falls victim to a stabbing attack, Frej begins to reminisce about the events of decades past. Frej's memories from the bright 1970s to the present day are filled with love, jealousy, betrayal, life and death.

Where Once We Walked

Novel

The stories of the aristocratic Lilliehjelm family, the middle-class Widing family and the poor Kajander family from the Finland's independence through the Civil War and the Roaring Twenties ending during the Second World War.

Miehen sydän

Writer

Harri, a usually calm middle-aged man, loses his temper at a bar. His behavior towards the bartender Raija weighs on his mind, so he returns to make things up to her. This ends up being the catalyst for an unlikely and unwitting relationship between the two.

Kites Over Helsinki

Novel

Epic tale about two generations of men in a wealthy Finnish family, spanning from the 1960s all the way through the early 1990s. The father has achieved his position as director of the family business through marrying the heiress. Their eldest son Dani, hoped to succeed his father, succumbs to drugs while pursuing a career in rock music. Younger Riku grows up under the shadow of his more talented big brother and slowly drifts into the late 1980s, noticing then how many of his friends have managed to take advantage of the economic upswing.