The Finnish author of “Näkymättömät kädet” (Invisible Hands, still in translation), which follows the fate of an illegal immigrant from Morocco to prosperous Europe with journalistic precision, will be part of the ILB’s graphic novel focus (Sep 8, 11:00).
Describe yourself in three words starting with the same letter…
Just, jovial, (occasionally) juvenile.
Your favourite character?
M y daughter Aino in Vain pahaa unta (Just Bad Dreams), in which we drew Aino’s nightmares from when she was three.
Your recurring literary nightmare?
That I’d have to do some kind of neverending series and repeat myself.
A book you wish you had authored?
A best seller! Shaun Tan’s The Arrival.
Your first memory of writing/drawing…
At four, I won a candy drawing competition, using only black diagonal shapes – the shape of the company’s popular liquorice sweets.
If I weren’t a graphic author, I’d be…
Unemployed.
Originally published in Issue 119, September 2013.