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 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 experience—with the Big Bad Wolf, a bikini-clad circus announcer, and Jesus Christ himself—drives her further and further from her family and others. Struggling to understand her place in the world around her, it’s in language that she discovers a refuge and a way to be seen at last. An unforgettable story of transformation, The Lowest Common Denominator is the first volume in a trilogy that has been celebrated in Finland as the best work of the century.

Translated by Mia Spangenberg