L'écriture de Riikka Pulkkinen explore les complexités des liens humains et les subtilités de l'identité. Sa prose, à la fois incisive et lyrique, brouille souvent les frontières entre la réalité et le rêve. Pulkkinen aborde des thèmes universels tels que l'amour, la perte et la quête de sens dans le monde contemporain. Elle entraîne les lecteurs dans la vie introspective de ses personnages, révélant la nature fragile de l'esprit humain.
Elsa, la grand-mère d'Anna, lutte contre un cancer et souhaite profiter de chaque instant avec ses proches. Cependant, Anna découvre un drame familial caché derrière le mariage heureux de ses grands-parents, révélé par une vieille robe oubliée dans une armoire.
Set against the backdrop of Vienna, the story follows an eighteen-year-old Jewish youth named Michael Rost as he seeks adventure and meaning in his life. His journey is marked by fleeting connections with a diverse cast of characters, including prostitutes, revolutionaries, and wealthy individuals, reflecting the complexities of society. Through these encounters, the narrative explores themes of identity, belonging, and the search for purpose in a rapidly changing world.
Elsa is dying. Her husband, Martti, and daughter Eleonoora are struggling to accept the crushing thought that they are soon to lose her. As Elsa becomes ever more fragile, Eleonoora's childhood memories are slipping away. Meanwhile, Eleonoora's daughter Anna spends her time pondering the fates of passersby. For her the world is full of stories. But the story that will change her forever is the one about Eeva, her mother's nanny, whom her grandparents have been silent about for years. Eeva's forgotten story, which Anna first learns of when she discovers an old dress of Eeva's, is finally revealed layer by layer. The tale that unfolds is about a mother and daughter, about how memory can deceive us--and sometimes that is the most merciful thing that can happen.