Mika Waltari

While just a boy, Mika witnessed the Finnish Civil War, during this his White-sided family fled to the home of his mom’s aunt at Laukkoski in Pornainen, near Porvoo, which was relatively peaceful and it was where the Whites were predominant. He enrolled later at the University of Helsinki as a theology student, according to the wishes of his uncle Toivo, however he quickly abandoned theology in favor of literature, philosophy, and aesthetics, and graduated in 1929. As he studied, he contributed to various magazines and wrote stories and poetry, getting his very first book “Jumalaa paossa” published in the…

The best place to start is the Mikael Karvajalka series, the earliest of Mika Waltari's multi-book series: it opens with The Adventurer (1948) and runs to 2 books across 1948–1949, ending with The Wanderer / The Sultan's Renegade (1949). Mika Waltari's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

Mika Waltari has 14 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1945 and 2018. 4 of them belong to 2 named series — the largest being the Mikael Karvajalka series with 2 books — and 10 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Mika Waltari's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Mikael Karvajalka (1948–1949, 2 books) and Secret Of The Kingdom (1959–1966, 2 books).

This guide splits Mika Waltari's 14 books into 2 named series and 10 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Mikael Karvajalka (2 books, 1948–1949); Secret Of The Kingdom (2 books, 1959–1966).