Published in 1984, ‘Far och son’ is a Swedish language novel by Finnish writer Jörn Donner that won the ‘Finlandia prize‘ in 1985. Born into the Donner family of German descent, Jörn Donner was the son of the linguist Kai Donner and the grandson of linguist and politician Otto Donner. He lived and worked for long periods in Sweden, and served as director of the Swedish Film Institute. In 1979, he was a member of the jury at the 29th Berlin International Film Festival. Internationally Jörn Donner was best known as the producer of Ingmar Bergman’s film Fanny and Alexander (Fanny och Alexander, 1982). In 1984 the movie won a total of four Academy Awards including the award for best foreign language film, making him to date the only Finn to receive an Oscar. Donner was associated with several different political parties, such as SDP and RKP, and was at different times a member both of the Finnish parliament and the European Parliament. In ‘Father and Son’, Jörn Donner weaves together the present and the past in a sensuous and surprising composition to create a story that oscillates between profound seriousness and light-hearted comedy. The novel is set in present-day Helsinki, Finland and Central Europe in the 1950s, 1920s and 1930s.
