Published in 2007, ‘Toiset Kengät’ (‘Other Shoes’) is a novel by the Finnish visual artist and writer Hannu Väisänen that won the ‘Finlandia Prize‘ in 2007. The book is the second part of Väisänen’s ‘Antero trilogy’, and it describes the author’s own youth spent in Oulu. Hannu Pekka Antero Väisänen (2.10.1951) is a graphic artist, painter and writer from Finland who has been living in France since 1989, and also holds French citizenship. Väisänen has written a series of partially autobiographical novels, describing the young boy Antero growing up in a garrison area in a small town in Northern Finland, leaving his home, gradually opening himself up to the world, and becoming an artist. Väisänen also won the ‘State Prize for Visual arts’ in 2008 and the ‘State Price for literature’ in 2015.
