Online Nordic Book Club: The Women I Think About at Night by Mia Kankimaki

On February 9, we’ll be discussing the book The Women I Think About at Night by Mia Kankimäki, who joined us last month for a book talk on the novel with moderator Heli Sirviö, available to stream here.

Bored with her life and feeling stuck in her mid-40s, Mia Kankimäki decided to leave her job, sell her apartment, and travel the world to follow the paths of  female explorers and artists from history who inspired her. From Tanzania and Kenya, she sought out the location where Karen Blixen of Out of Africa lived in the 1920s;  in Japan, Mia attempted to cure her depression while researching famed contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama, who has voluntarily lived in a psychiatric hospital for decades. In Italy, Mia searched for the works of forgotten Renaissance women painters of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, finally finding  her heroines in the portraits of Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, and Artemisia Gentileschi. If these women could make it in the world hundreds of years ago, why can’t Mia?

The Women I Think About at Night is part travelogue and part thrilling exploration of the lost women adventurers of history who defied expectations in order to see—and change—the world.