Mikael Niemi is the son of a police officer from Pajala, in the village of Vittulajänkä near the Finnish border, and he still lives there. In 2000, Niemi’s breakthrough novel Popular Music from Vittula, which won the August Prize, was published. The book gained worldwide fame and has been translated into at least 26 languages. A film adaptation of the novel has also been made.
His latest novel, Stone in Silk, was released in 2023. The rights to the novel have been sold to several languages.
Photo: Like Kustannus