Anu Kaaja

Rusetti is a virtuosic, triptych-like collage novel in which the hedonistic narrator takes the reader on a grand tour of Europe’s cultural heritage, searching for spiritual, physical, and intellectual pleasures in museums, techno clubs, and cafés. The story employs three different styles: auto-fictional material, magical realism, and art essayistics. It merges lightness and seriousness, pleasure and suffering, thought and play.

In the novel, surreal conversations take place with objects, and life’s porous nature is explored through reflections on friendship and relationships. The reading experience is an aesthetic delight, and the ever-present bow – bow row rococo – serves as a symbol whose beauty, devoid of meaning, illustrates the exercise of power in society. 

Human relationships with objects are contemplated in an exuberantly sensual way, and the stories reify people while humanising things. The metaphorical cornucopia can be read as essayistic or as a snapshot of an era, where traumatic romantic relationships intersect with the ecstasy of techno parties – or as both. Through objects and captivating art experiences – Dürer’s Young Hare! The hottest Renaissance boys! The most dramatic Baroque interiors! – difficult themes are also addressed: the conflict between bohemian pleasure-seeking and submission, inequality, and a world shaped by predatory capitalism and genocide. “Beauty demands exploitation, does exploitation demand beauty?” Faced with art, one forgets all of this.

Anu Kaaja (b. 1984) is a screenwriter and critically acclaimed author. She holds a Master of Arts from the University of Salford and has also attended the writing programme at the Kriittinen Korkeakoulu education and cultural centre. For her previous novel, Katie-Kate (2020), Anu Kaaja received the Kalevi Jäntti Prize. For her debut, the surreal short story collection Muodonmuuttoilmoitus (2015), she was awarded the Jarkko Laine Prize.