Read and discuss Scandinavian literature in translation as part of our Nordic Book Club, now online! Each month we select a novel from some of the best Nordic literary voices. Discussions have typically taken place the last Tuesday of the month at Scandinavia House but will now be taking place bi-weekly as an online meeting.
Book club participants will all appear online at the start of the meeting when they log in so that they are able to take part in the conversation. For participants who would prefer not to be visible onscreen, see an easy tutorial online here on how to set a profile image that will appear onscreen instead.
On February 9, we’ll be discussing the book The Women I Think About at Night by Mia Kankimäki, who joined us last month for a book talk on the novel with moderator Heli Sirviö, available to stream here.
Bored with her life and feeling stuck in her mid-40s, Mia Kankimäki decided to leave her job, sell her apartment, and travel the world to follow the paths of female explorers and artists from history who inspired her. From Tanzania and Kenya, she sought out the location where Karen Blixen of Out of Africa lived in the 1920s; in Japan, Mia attempted to cure her depression while researching famed contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama, who has voluntarily lived in a psychiatric hospital for decades. In Italy, Mia searched for the works of forgotten Renaissance women painters of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, finally finding her heroines in the portraits of Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, and Artemisia Gentileschi. If these women could make it in the world hundreds of years ago, why can’t Mia?
The Women I Think About at Night is part travelogue and part thrilling exploration of the lost women adventurers of history who defied expectations in order to see—and change—the world.