Timo K. Mukka

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Timo Kustaa Mukka (1944 - 1973) was a Finnish author who wrote about the lives of people in Lapland.

Timo K. Mukka was born on 17 December 1944 in Bollnäs, Sweden and died less than twenty-nine years later, on 27 March 1973 in Rovaniemi, capital of the Lapland region of Finland. During his short life Mukka studied at the Arts Academy in Helsinki and completed nine novels, written in a lyrical prose style, about the harsh conditions in Lapland, the region of his childhood and of most of his adult life. These books were published in the six years between 1964 and 1970. In 1973 there was a sensational story on Mukka in the Finnish magazine Hymy which is believed to have contributed to his early demise.

In the early 1960s there sprang up a movement in Finnish literature called "spontaneous-confessional fiction". It was heavily influenced by the writings of Henry Miller. Its two most prominent representatives were the enfants terribles of modern Finnish literature, the talented poet and translator Pentti Saarikoski (1937 - 1983) and the author Hannu Salama (born 1936). Among the writers belonging to this movement, Mukka is considered the most original as well as the most consistent in his writing.

Mukka's first novel, The Earth is a Sinful Song, was adapted into an extremely popular movie, the first film by the esteemed Finnish director, Rauni Mollberg. The film's "cinema verite" style reflects the author's style precisely. Upon its 1974 release, it was the most widely attended film in Finnish film history. Unfortunately, the Finnish National film Board has limited its distribution