PETE
by Ville Verkkapuro
Pete, Kosmos 2022, 320pp
Winner of the Ilkka-Pohjalainen Literary Prize 2023!
Verkkapuro was named one of the 35 most promising cultural figures in Finland by Helsingin Sanomat in 2024!
A searing but tender novel about a dead father, which examines the search for a better life and addiction through Kurt Cobain, The Simpsons, and white trash by an author hailed as a young, Finnish Knausgård.
Thirty-year-old Ville is living his best life with a dream job, love, and friends–everything in his life is perfect. But like a tattoo on his soul, his father Pete’s death troubles him. Ville is told he looks and acts just like his father. But is he destined to follow his father’s path?
He sets out to find out who Pete really was, seeing his troubled, alcoholic father through a lens of radical empathy. Through accounts of others’ memories of Pete, Ville pieces together a portrait of his absent father. He realizes that he is neither Pete nor an addict, taking many surprising turns along the way.
Taking a deep dive into themes of humanity, addiction, The Simpsons, white trash, Kurt Cobain’s mind, family relationships, and the essence of personhood, Pete is a tender and deeply philosophical novel about addiction, the search for a better life, and a father who died in uncertain circumstances, told with a disarming openness, directness, and warmth.
With working-class roots and an autobiographical, unflinching narrative that draws comparisons to Édouard Louis’ Who Killed My Father, Verkkapuro showcases his raw talent in this acclaimed debut.
RIGHTS SOLD: Finland Kosmos (orig.)
Materials available: English sample and synopsis, Finnish edition
Praise:
“The twists in the narrative are sometimes unexpected, and towards the end, the novel expands into an essay that deals with drugs, addiction and self-knowledge from perspectives that are fresh to the reader. Even as a novel, Pete is open to surprises and new forms, making it one of the year’s most inspiring debuts”
“What is most telling about the novel is its deep empathy. The main character of the story doesn’t blame his parents for his broken childhood and his own addictions, putting love first.”
“Western Helsinki’s Knausgaard”
is a writer and musician with a day job as a copywriter. In his musical career, he is playing for New Ro and Vesta. Verkkapuro lives in his adoptive hometown of Helsinki. Pete (Kosmos 2022) is his debut novel.
Author portrait by Pietari Purovaara
