When I Forgot – Elina Hirvonen

I slipped this book off the library shelf because of the title and took it home with me because of the evocative cover, bare feet leaving footprints in the snow. Once again a random selection has led to a happy discovery; When I Forgot is a beautifully written, thoughtfully crafted book. Time and again I was struck by an image so gorgeous, so accurate, that I felt the effect viscerally and had to stop, look away, and absorb the impact.

Elina Hirvonen is a Finnish writer (this novel was translated by Douglas Robinson), and the main action of When I Forgot takes place in Helsinki in the days post-9/11. The lover of Anna, our protagonist, is an American professor. For him, feelings of shame, familial and personal, become intertwined with national shame. One type of shame brings to the forefront and feeds another until he is brought to the brink of self-destruction. Anna, meanwhile, is dealing with her own shame and guilt surrounding her older brother’s mental illness. We are taken backward and forward in time, through memory and dream, gaining insight into what has brought Anna to a quiet café, where she is slowly breaking down while reading Michael Cunningham’s The Hours.

When I Forgot examines war – the intimate side of personal war - with deeply impressive clarity. This novel is Hirvonen’s debut, and I look forward to seeing what she produces next.