The novel is the first in a three-part novel series and revolves around a teenage girl who moves from the countryside in the mid-1970s. According to the award citation, the book is "a deep and grand novel that talks about writing, social movements, feminism and family."
The Finlandia Prize has been awarded by the Finnish Book Foundation since 1984. The prize money is 30,000 euros, equivalent to almost 330,000 kronor.
Monika Fagerholm had a major public breakthrough in 1994 with "Wonderful Women by the Water". She was awarded the August Prize for "The American Girl" in 2005 and the Nordic Council Literature Prize for "Who Killed Bambi?" in 2020.
According to Yle, the last time a Finnish-Swedish author was awarded the Finlandia Prize in the fiction category was in 2012, when Ulla-Lena Lundberg received the prize for the novel "Ice".
