Compartment No. 6, by Rosa Liksom
Compartment No. 6, by Rosa Liksom, translated from the Finnish by yours truly, is coming out in the UK on the first of May, 2014, published by Serpent’s Tail.
It’s a novel about a quiet young Finnish student who is forced to share her train compartment with a drunken, tale-telling, self-proclaimed murderer as they cross the crumbling Soviet Union from Moscow to Ulan Bator.
Here are some reviews of the book in its various translations to date:
“The wild stories of the rough fellow passenger make this journey increasingly absurd, giddying and captivating… It is a stroke of genius to describe a country and give form to one’s mixed feelings for it through such a figure. ” Aftonbladet
“Melodic, rhythmic language, compressed, poetical and replete with fragrance and colour sensations… The girl and the man, this unlikely couple, accompany one another at the close across the plains as if progressing through a film by Andrej Tarkovskij.” – Svenska Dagbladet
“The outcome is both atmospheric and beautiful, an elegy to the Soviet Union and its people, the land where ‘unhappiness is perceived as happiness’.” – Helsingborgs Dagblad
It’s an ugly, beautiful book.
Available for pre-order from Serpent’s Tail or your favorite bookseller.
