‘Coffee and Vodka is a rich story that stays with us….with moments of brilliance.’ - Dr. Mimi Thebo, Bath Spa University.
Eeva doesn’t want to remember, but a return to Finland where she grew up forces her to confront her past.
‘In Stockholm, everything is bigger and better.’
When her father announces the family is to leave Finland for a new life in Sweden, 11-year-old Eeva is elated. But in Stockholm, her mother finds feminism, Eeva’s sister, Anja, pretends to be Swedish and her father struggles to adapt.
One night, Eeva’s world falls apart.
Fast forward 30 years. Now teaching Swedish to immigrants, Eeva travels back to Finland when her beloved grandmother becomes ill. On the overnight ferry, a chance meeting with her married ex-lover, Yri, prompts family secrets to unravel and buried memories to come flooding back.
It’s time for Eeva to find out what really happened all those years ago …
Coffee and Vodka has it all: family drama, mystery, romance, and sisterly love.
If you like Nordic Noir, you’ll love this rich Nordic family drama by the Finnish author Helena Halme.
Review:
‘The descriptions of the difficulties of childhood, sisterhood, relationships, and parenthood transcend national borders.’ - Pauline Masurel, editor & writer.
Review:
‘Like the television series The Bridge, Coffee and Vodka opens our eyes to facets of Scandinavian culture that most of us would lump together into one. I loved the way the narrative wove together the viewpoint of Eeva the child and her shock at arriving in a new country, with Eeva the sophisticated adult, returning for the first time to the country of her birth, and finding it both familiar and irretrievably strange.’ Catriona Troth, Triskele Books.
Review:
‘I loved reading this. After picking it up (or opening it on my Kindle I should say) it was hard to put it down; I even missed my stop on the bus to carry on reading.’ Goodreads reader.
Pick up Coffee and Vodka to discover this brilliant, heart-warming Nordic family drama today!
Helena Halme grew up in Tampere, central Finland, and moved to the UK at the age of 22 via Stockholm and Helsinki. She spent the first ten years in Britain working as journalist and translator for the BBC, where she was first to report on the Chernobyl disaster and on Swedish Premier Palme's murder. Helena now lives in North London and runs the Finnish-British charity, Finn-Guild. She loves Nordic Noir and thinks in another life she might have been a blonde Birgitte Nyborg from Borgen. Helena has published three novels, The Englishman, Coffee and Vodka, and The Red King of Helsinki.
