As in the best fantasy novels, the possibility of unknowable forces on the very fringe of our perceivable reality lends depth and tension to Korkea-aho’s novel.
'Published author looking to buy an apartment in south Helsinki. Offer me a good price, and I’ll write you a book!’ So begins The Red Room, a novel about dominance, submission, manipulation, and the darker side of human relationships that unfortunately fails to fulfil its potential.
Kaj Korkea-aho’s fifth novel Röda rummet is a charged, sensitively hewn text that explores power dynamics and desire, and the extent to which we are prepared to go to realise our own, and others’, fantasies.
Translated by Bradley Harmon.