Lowest Common Denominator

‘Grandpa says everyone should leave me alone. If I want to be a boy, then I’m a boy: simple as that.’Writing in the wake of her father’s death, the narrator of Pirkko Saisio’s autofictional novel ...

‘Grandpa says everyone should leave me alone. If I want to be a boy, then I’m a boy: simple as that.’Writing in the wake of her father’s death, the narrator of Pirkko Saisio’s autofictional novel transports us to the 1950s Finland of her youth, where she navigates life as an only child of communist parents. Convinced she will grow up to become a man, a young Pirkko keeps trying and failing to meet the expectations of the adults around her.With wit and style, Saisio captures the heart-wrenching intensity of childhood feeling, merging fever dreams with sensory-laden memories as each formative ex