Helsingin Sanomat 18 June 2026, photo by Linda Nguyen / HS. Newspaper photo: Emma Alftan.
Helsingin Sanomat is Finland's largest daily newspaper, and its critics are not known for handing out praise like candy. So the coffee nearly spilled onto the keyboard (by accident, unlike Dorit's) when critic Helena Ruuska reviewed Syteen tai saveen in June.
In the novel, Dorit quits her job in television and opens a ceramics studio, all or nothing. According to Ruuska, writing a debut novel is probably as daring as starting a company. Emma has done both and can confirm that the novel at least involved fewer VAT returns.
Ruuska calls the book "a pastel-toned summer read" full of funny mishaps, unpleasant memories and surprising twists. Fine by us: we love every shade of pastel, and they come with the genre.
Three lines we'll engrave on the side of a mug
"Fluently written, Syteen tai saveen launches Emma Alftan's feel-good ceramics trilogy."
"Alftan skilfully weaves a sprawling plot and leaves shoots waiting for the next instalments."
"Alftan is a fluent and witty writer"
According to the critic, the only ambiguity is in the title. We take that as a compliment. Syteen tai saveen is a Finnish idiom for "all or nothing", and saveen literally means "into clay", so for once a title holds everything that matters.
Ruuska also noticed that things "may heat up" in the next books. We neither confirm nor deny. Part two, Glazed and Confused, comes out in 2027, so there is still time to read the first one.
