Summary of Wonderful Women by the Sea
“Wonderful Women by the Sea” recounts a series of idyllic summer holidays in southern Finland in the 1960s, shared by two women – Isabella and Rosa – and their families, as seen through the eyes of Isabella’s seven-year-old son Thomas. The novel portrays how the women become increasingly inspired by the ideals of female liberation and sexual freedom from the American cultural revolution of the 1960s. Their longing to break free from their roles of wife and mother comes to a head when Isabella and Rosa take a short trip to Copenhagen – a journey after which nothing will ever be the same for young Thomas.
Reasons to read Wonderful Women by the Sea
On the surface, “Wonderful Women by the Sea” reads like a gentle summer tale of seaside holidays, always in the same place. Beneath this façade, it explores themes of social change, women’s emancipation, midlife crises, family tensions, and the disillusionments of growing up. Monika Fagerholm, a celebrated Swedish-speaking Finnish author, made her debut with this novel, which became one of the most widely translated works of Scandinavian fiction of the 1990s. It won the 1994 Runeberg Prize and was nominated for the Finlandia Prize and the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Other notable works by Fagerholm include “The American Girl” (2005 August Prize) and “Who Killed Bambi? (2020 Nordic Council Literature Prize).
Setting: near Helsinki (Finland)
Novel set in Finland: an unnamed seaside resort outside Helsinki.
Original title: Underbara kvinnor vid vatten
Year of publication: 1994
Nr of pages: 330
