Lowest Common Denominator

Writing in the wake of her father's death, the narrator of Pirkko Saisio's autofictional novel transports us to the 1950s Finland of her youth, where she navigates life as an only child of communist parents with her trademark wit and style. Convinced she will grow up to become a man, a young Saisio keeps trying and failing to meet the expectations of the adults around her. Each formative experience--featuring the Big Bad Wolf, raging fires, a bikini-clad circus announcer, tuberculosis-carrying mud pies, and Jesus Christ--drives her further and further from her family. Struggling to understand her place in the world around her, it's in language that she discovers a refuge and a way to be seen at last.

Part queer coming-of-age novel, part meditation on grief, Lowest Common Denominator is a rumination on family, desire, and finding your voice, told in Pirkko Saisio's fiercely distinctive style and elegantly translated by Mia Spangenberg.