Pressestimmen
"Ein großartiger Roman (…) Bemerkenswert, wie stark sich die Autorin in die komplizierte Geschichte dieser extremen Epoche vertieft und deren unlösbare Konflikte verständlich macht."
Monika Melchert, Lesart, Heft 1/2017 Frühjahr
"The biography by Riikka Pelo, even as a work of fiction, gets incredibly close to Tsvetajeva’s mental life. The romantic poet and her open, sensitive inner monologue lives on every page of Our Earthly Life."
Pentti Stranius, Karjalainen newspaper, 22. November 2013
"The novel is well considered and innovative in its structure, and Riikka Pelo is a protean and skillful narrator. No wonder the novel pleased the Finlandia Jury."
Leena Tuomela, Ilkka newspaper, 14. November 2013
"Pelo says she searched for a long time for ’the weight of being’ for her characters. She has enforced it tremendeously beautifully. She describes the instictive relationship between a mother and a daughter like from under their skins."
Kristina Svensson, Vantaan Lauri newspaper, 37/2013
"Riikka Pelo’s historical novel is skillfully drafted. You can’t put the book down, you enjoy reading every line of it. The sentences flow forward in an enchanting manner."
Ulla Janhonen, Anna magazine, 23/2013
"Our Earthly lives is an impressive novel in every way."
Kirsi Hietanen, Salon Seudun Sanomat newspaper, 4.April 2013
"Riikka Pelo’s second novel, Our Earthly Life, offers a wide spectrum to the Russian sentiment from the 1920’s to the 1940’s. (...) Pelo has chosen the point of view courageously: the monologue of a young Soviet woman cuts into a poetic girlhood and Marina’s indirect narration. The sentences broaden to comprise pages, the expression bends into a prose poem."
Mervi Kantokorpi, Helsingin Sanomat newspaper, 4. April 2013
"Pelo writes with a unique language, and the detailed narration gives a precise picture of the people’s lives as a whole."
Marjaana Nieminen, Lukufiilis magazine, 3/2013
"All in all Our Earthly Life tells about dozens of loves. (...)Throughout the novel Riikka Pelo plants precise, beautiful, peaceful details about our earthly life amongst the bad and sad things. (...)This is a beautiful, grand novel about immensily difficult things."
Kaisa Neimala, Parnasso literature magazine, 3/2013
"Riikka Pelo erzählt einfühlungs- und bildreich, psychologisch, sehr nah an ihren Figuren"
Beate Meierfrankenwald,
Bayern 2 Diwan, 04. März 2017
"Pelo writes beutifully, cuttingly, and she broadens the genre of the historical novel outside the Finnish borders to the Russian mental milieus and the tragic fates of artists. In addition to that, she unwinds skillfully the painful and demanding relationship between the mother and the daughter. The gushing expression gives a stunning picture of the harsh reality of Stalin’s persecutions and of the breakdown of a family. Riikka Pelo’s novel leaves a mark, and it leaves the reader speechless."
The statement of the Finlandia Prize Jury, 2013
"There is not one word Pelo has written you would want to pass by, so significant each and every one of them is. You don’t want to do that, because Pelo has written each word to be so senseful and alluring. (...)Pelo helps her reader in every way, not least with having written her novel in a manner that is bold, mesmerizing and even frightening in all its precision."
Liisa Kukkola, Kouvolan Sanomat newspaper, 16. Dezember 2013
"Pelo manages to balance the political uproar and the meaning of the mother–daughter relationship wonderfully, the emphasis being on the latter. A special praise belongs to the linguistic and stylistic choises: Marina’s sections, told in the third person, are masterfully lyrical at some points, emphazising the poetic world view, when again Ariadna’s first person narration has mostly a fluent journalistic style."
Veijo Hietala, Turun Sanomat newspaper, 4. Dezember 2013
"Riikka Pelo’s novel is a garden of abundance. The styles intersect and cascade on the endless see of narration, the flexible language flows and ripples without ties. The author has a gentle and observant eye and a healthy political disbelief. (...)The ending of the novel, after the shuddering events, is an impressive read."
Matti Saurama, Demokraatti newspaper, 3. Dezember 2013
"Pelo has been a lyrical author already in her previous novel, but in Our Earthly Life the language goes even deeper and flows with more force. (...)Pelo’s novel bares some resemblance to Sofi Oksanen’s novel When Doves Disappeared: the author provides the reader with several happenings, characters and a large portion of the lost history of Europe, handed out with a masterly voice and from the viewpoint of a small but still significant person and her story."
Leena Taskinen, Keskipohjanmaa newspaper, 2. Dezember 2013
"When a talented author gets a hold of the target author’s works, diaries and letters, it is obvious that the novel comes out exceptionally strong and refined. The stories of people have been lived through to be credible. The result is a combination of two authors. There is nothing negative about this: the reader is given an experience and the target author a new readership. Riikka Pelo has earned the Finlandia Prize, should she be chosen the winner."
Anelma Järvenpää-Summanen, Maaseudun tulevaisuus newspaper, 2. Dezember 2013
"Riikka Pelo’s second novel is beutiful, melancholy and so filled with life that you cannot but love it. (...)The text grows into a breathtaking stream of consciousness, but it is so beutiful and poetic that you would want to read it aloud."
Sirpa Rauhaniemi, Valkeakosken Sanomat newspaper, 2. Dezember 2013