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  • Author Nominee:Finland

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Irmelin Sandman Lilius
Finland, Author

Once the book is finished … is when I find out who I wrote it for! This can be very interesting. While I'm writing, I don't think about the reader. It's about bringing out what I want to bring out, as well and as clearly as possible.

- Irmelin Sandman Lilius

Irmelin Sandman Lilius was born in Helsinki in 1936. During her early years she lived in a number of different places in both Sweden and Finland but went to school in Helsinki. Her first book, a poetry collection, Trollsåg [Troll song] was published in 1955 and her first children's book, Historien om oss [The story of us] was published in 1958. Sandman Lilius is also a visual artist, working in watercolours, oils and pastels, and a translator from Finnish and English into Swedish.


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With her extensive body of work, Irmelin Sandman Lilius is, alongside Tove Jansson, one of the most revered authors of literature for children and young people in Finland. In her books she skilfully combines everyday reality with elements of fantasy and play. In the power of her expression and her highly original narrative style, Sandman Lilius has been a pioneer: as early as her trilogies Fru Sola [Mme Sola] and Kung Tulle [King Tull] from the 1960s and 1970s, she brought past and present together to form a fascinating and unique brand of fantasy.

Irmelin Sandman Lilius's highly creative fantasy has its roots firmly in her own childhood, dominated by numerous moves to new environments as an evacuee during the war years and her parents' divorce. Alongside her own experiences, her influences include mythology, history, folklore and folk beliefs, which combine to make her stories multilayered depictions of reality in which past and present exist simultaneously. What makes the works of Sandman Lilius unique is the way in which they combine fantasy and realism. This concrete description and her magical use of language, rich with colloquial and antiquated words and expressions, lend her works a highly original atmosphere. With this in mind, it is no wonder that Sandman Lilius has acquired so many faithful readers and admirers over the years - not to mention those who have followed in her footsteps.

Selected bibliography

Gullkrona gränd (Fru Sola I) [Gold crown lane] 1969 Bonniers
Gripanderska gården (Fru Sola II) [The goldmaker's house] 1970 Bonniers
Gångande Grå (Fru Sola III) [Horses of the night] 1971 Bonniers
Mattan från Kars [The carpet from Kars] 1989 Bonniers
Korpfolksungen [The raven folk's child] 1994 Bonniers

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