Even as a child, Finnish author Iida Turpeinen was fascinated by the world of science, but she felt alone in her interest. Growing up in the 1990s, female role models were conspicuous by their absence.
I remember that the lack of female representation felt very tangible, she says.
The childhood experience has left a clear mark on the book. The novel follows the story of Steller's sea cow, an enormous sea creature discovered in 1741 on Bering Island in the Bering Sea. Just 27 years later, it became extinct.
For Turpeinen, it was an absolute requirement that women be given a place in the story.
It was a conscious choice to write about women. Very often, when writing about the history of science, it's about men, as if half the world's population didn't exist, she explains.
“The culture needs to change”
Iida Turpeinen tells us that the women highlight another of the book's central topics - that people and society are capable of change.
If you look at the limited opportunities that the women in the book had, and then what my opportunities are today, we have seen a revolution in how we view women's role in society, she says.
With that perspective as a guiding light, she wants to spread determination. Crises like climate change and biodiversity loss are fundamentally cultural, she believes.
We have inherited systems that are based on the idea that natural resources are infinite. And if the culture doesn't change, we will just make the same mistakes over and over again, she says.
Art as a guide
Iida Turpeinen understands today's feeling of hopelessness, which is why she emphasizes the crucial role of art and literature in challenging old beliefs.
"That's what artists do. They imagine other scenarios, other worlds. It's strange. I've been working with extinction for seven years and I've come out of the process more hopeful," she says.
The book's original Finnish title "Elolliset" captures this precisely. It is an old word that refers to everything living in nature, as opposed to non-living things like the sea or mountains.
It conveys a very beautiful idea that all living things are part of one and the same system, she says.
Born: 1987 in Finland
Debut novel “The Living”: Published in 2023. Awarded the Helsingin Sanomat Prize for the year’s best debut novel and nominated for the Finlandia Prize. The book’s rights have been sold to 28 countries.
Job: Turpeinen now spends her days at the Natural History Museum in Helsinki. There she is working on her next novel, which she says will be about snails. She also does research in modern Anglo-American literature, and has studied how scientific thinking influences literature.
The Steller's sea cow was discovered in 1741 on Bering Island in the Bering Sea by Georg Wilhelm Steller. 27 years later, it became extinct, mainly due to intensive hunting.
The aquatic mammal grew to be 8–9 meters long and could weigh around 8–10 tons. It is significantly larger than its relative the dugong.
Manatees or sirenians are most similar in body shape to seals, but they are actually more closely related to elephants.
Source: NE and WWF
