A Pier out to the Sea

Laituri matkalla mereen

Daniel Katz writes intensive, painful and humourous novels. A Pier out to the Sea is a brilliant handling of a universal topic.

Henry Loimu steps off the pier. He is the guest of honour at a celebration, the reason for which no one quite seems to remember. The host is a blind old colonel with a beautiful young Serbian wife, Mavra.

Henry falls in love with Mavra, and all the pieces of a love triangle slot into place. But the colonel does nothing – at least, not immediately. His blindness does not prevent him from seeing further than the others, nor from weaving together all the invisible loose ends of the plot. The colonel has a clear view: happiness is something that is loaned, just like his young wife. Love can last the loan of a wife to another man, but that loan has to be paid back in full – and with interest.

A Pier out to the Sea subtly handles the themes of love, morality and the complexities of human relationships. It is not, however, a love story, but rather a tale of recent Balkan history and the painful memories of war. Katz’s 2001 Finlandia Fiction Prize nominated novel is a powerful and wise handling of a universal topic.

Rights sold

Estonian (Eesti Raamat)
French (Gaïa Editions)
German (Klett-Cotta)
Polish (Czarne)

Reading material

English extract
Finnish edition
French edition
German edition
Polish edition
Estonian edition

An introduction and an excerpt in English available in Books from Finland online