Ildar Abuzyarov

The Sun of Finland is a novel set in an invented town Nizhnij Hutor which sends the reader back to Nizhnij Novgorod which was famous for a large share of Finnish population. The Sun of Finland is partly inspired by Kalevala, and partly by the literature of Soviet period. It describes a life of an ethnic minority in the post-Soviet Russia, showing how the people in town created a universe of their own where the ancient Scandinavian myths, the practices of Soviet lifestyle, and the special mentality of an ethnic living at the crossroads of two very different cultures. The opening chapters of The Sun of Finland have been published in a literary magazine in Russia.

While in residency in Finland, I intend to finish the novel and prepare it for publication. The novel will consists of two parts – the first will describe the life on Nizhnij Hutor, the narration gradually ascending and widening from a level of a life of a family in a single flat to the connection of multiple family stories in a condominium, further out to the street reaching the neighbourhood. At some point, the narration shifts from everyday level to demiurge level, demonstrating what internal powers rule and define the life of peaceful town dwellers. The second part which I hope to write while in residence in Saari, is called The Book of Overmne the Writer. It contains a set of stories written by one the dwellers of Nizhnij Hutor, a writer Overmne.