Sofi Oksanen is an exceptional Finnish writer with exceptional manners in a culture that tolerates poorly exceptions. Being exceptional does not mean solely the remarkable gesture when receiving the Finlandia Prize in the Old Student House in Helsinki in 2008 as she made a courtesy in front of the Finnish literary elite. It does not mean that her novels have very little to do with Finland, nor that she gives regularly provocative political statements on Russian politics. It is the literary prizes she has received that makes her exceptional: 18 prizes in seven years, many of them prestigious international prizes. Oksanen is a writer in a contemporary world of literary prizes.
