''New Finnish Grammar'' ( it, Nuova grammatica finlandese) is a 2000 novel by the Italian writer

Diego Marani Diego Marani (born 1959) is an Italian novelist and European civil servant. Biography Born in Tresigallo, Marani attended the Liceo Ginnasio Ariosto in Ferrara till 1978 and graduated in interpretation and translation from the ''Scuola superior ...

Dedalus Books Dedalus Books is a British publishing company specialising in European literature. As stated on their website, Dedalus specialises in "its own distinctive genre, which we term distorted reality, where the bizarre, the unusual and the grotesque ...

, publisher website with reviews. It was translated from the Italian by Judith Landry and published by

in 2011. In Italy, the book won the

Grinzane Cavour Prize The Grinzane Cavour Prize (1989–2009) was an Italian literary award established in 1982 by Francesco Meotto. The annual award ceremony took place in the medieval castle of Grinzane Cavour. The goal of the prize was to attract young people to rea ...

in 2001. The English edition was shortlisted for the 2012

Independent Foreign Fiction Prize The ''Independent'' Foreign Fiction Prize (1990–2015) was a British literary award. It was inaugurated by British newspaper ''The Independent'' to honour contemporary fiction in translation in the United Kingdom. The award was first launched i ...

and the 2012

Best Translated Book Award The Best Translated Book Award is an American literary award that recognizes the previous year's best original translation into English, one book of poetry and one of fiction. It was inaugurated in 2008 and is conferred by Three Percent, the onlin ...

."2012 Best Translated Book Award Finalists: Fiction and Poetry"
Chad Post, Three Percent, April 10, 2012. The plot begins in 1943

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into provi ...

, Italy, where a military doctor, originally from Finland but enlisted in a German hospital ship, finds an unidentified man who is seriously wounded. The man recovers from his wound but seems to have lost his memory and even his language. The doctor believes the man to be a Finnish sailor who has somehow ended up in Italy, like himself. The doctor attempts to reconstruct the man's identity, to teach him Finnish, and eventually arranges his "return" to

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

to find his past.

References

2000 novels Italian historical novels Fiction set in 1943 Novels set in the 1940s Novels set in Trieste Novels set in Finland 20th-century Italian novels {{2000s-WWII-novel-stub

See also

References