Opening Ceremony: Frankfurt Fair Fetes Finland

Shelf Awareness

Oksanen

"Only a free language can fly," said Finnish writer Sofie Oksanen (author of Purge and three other novels) at the opening ceremony of the 66th Frankfurt Book Fair on Tuesday night. 
Part of the delegation from the Guest of Honor country, Oksanen spoke along with Pasi Sahlberg, an education expert and visiting professor at Harvard University, and Sauli Niinistö, president of Finland.

Oksanen discussed the relatively young history of Finnish literature, noting that its growth in the early 1900s went hand-in-hand with Finnish independence from Russia--one could not have been achieved without the other. Sahlberg, meanwhile, discussed his country's world-renowned education system. Key to the strength of Finnish schools, Sahlberg insisted, was the guiding belief in equality for all students.

Niinistö described Finnish literature as "something like a folk tale told in front of a campfire," and extolled literature in general as the "common home" of the human mind. The importance of the global message of literature, he insisted, cannot be understated. He said: "You cannot write too much, and you cannot read too much--never ever." --
Alex Mutter