ILFU Book Club with Iida Turpeinen

Address: Achter de Dom 14, Utrecht
Walk-in: 14:30, start: 15:00
Price: €10 or €33.99 including Dutch book (admission free for ILFU Members)

On Friday, March 28, we will welcome Iida Turpeinen to our ILFU Book Club to talk about her debut, Levende wezens (2025) – a moving novel about the wonder of life of man and nature, translated to Dutch by Annemarie Raas.

In this ILFU Book Club, the moderator will engage with the participants during the first hour. During the second hour of the Book Club, Iida Turpeinen herself will join the conversation - to answer any remaining questions about her book. The evening will be moderated by Nikki Dekker.

Note: the English version of Levende wezens (Beasts of the sea (translated by David Hackston) will be published in October of 2025.

About Levende wezens

Levende wezens is a literary achievement and a breathtaking adventure through three centuries. Approaching natural diversity through individual destinies, it’s a story of grand human ambitions and the urge to resurrect what humankind in its ignorance has destroyed.

In 1741, naturalist and theologist Georg Wilhelm Steller joins the Great Northern Expedition, as Captain Vitus Bering and his crew scout out a sea route from Asia to America. Although they never reach the American mainland, they make a unique discovery: the Steller’s sea cow.

In 1859, Hampus Furuhjelm, the Finnish governor of the Russian territory of Alaska, sends his men to seek the skeleton of this massive marine mammal, rumored to have vanished a hundred years before. 

In 1952, John Grönvall, a restorer at what is now the Finnish Museum of Natural History, is assigned the task of refurbishing the skeleton of the Steller’s sea cow, which by now is extinct.