Main content

Sofi Oksanen: Crafting a new novel

Finnish author Sofi Oksanen shares with Olga Smirnova how she begins a new novel.

Author Sofi Oksanen shares with Olga Smirnova how she begins a new novel. Olga witnesses how Sofi painstakingly gathers details for the lives of her characters, from choosing the colour of their nail varnish, to the perfumes they prefer, and the difference in the smell of Estonian and Soviet women.

Olga visits Sofi鈥檚 writing studio in a bohemian quarter of Helsinki where they both listen to the silence which is so important for Sofi to write. We discover why sometimes kneading dough and chopping carrots or onions can help the process.

Having an Estonian heritage, Sofi is fascinated by Soviet history. The theme of war in Ukraine is never far from Olga's conversations with Sofi as they discuss how it impacts upon the writing process.

Produced and presented by Olga Smirnova
Exec Producer: Rebecca Armstrong for the 成人快手 World Service

Available now

27 minutes

Last on

Sun 26 Mar 2023 18:32GMT

Broadcasts

  • Tue 21 Mar 2023 04:32GMT
  • Tue 21 Mar 2023 05:32GMT
  • Tue 21 Mar 2023 11:32GMT
  • Tue 21 Mar 2023 21:32GMT
  • Tue 21 Mar 2023 23:32GMT
  • Sun 26 Mar 2023 18:32GMT