The Tram Driver

My newest short novel — and the first I have written in English.

I am currently awaiting feedback from publishers regarding its publishing potential.

Plot Summary

The Tram Driver is an introspective, episodic novel that follows the quiet, inner life of a middle-aged tram driver in Helsinki. Written in the first person, the story unfolds like a journal—made up of daily observations, fleeting conversations, and chance encounters with passengers and strangers in the city.

Through moments of solitude, fragments of memory, and encounters with an often indifferent urban world, the narrator reflects on lost artistic dreams, immigration, aging, and failed relationships. Themes of loneliness, identity, and cultural dislocation emerge organically in a narrative that favors mood over action.

There is no conventional plot; instead, the rhythm of the tram becomes a metaphor for the narrator’s psychological journey—marked by stops, turns, aimless loops, and occasional moments of unexpected clarity.rors the narrator's psychological journey — stops, pauses, and aimless loops — as he navigates not just the city, but his inner life, dreams, and disappointments.