Secret passages in a Hillside town by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen

 

 

Secret passages in a Hillside town by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen

Finnish fiction

Original title – Harjukaupungin salakäytävät

Translator – Lola M Rogers

Source – review copy

I read Pasi first book to be translated into English The Rabbit Back Literature Society but never got round to reviewing it so when I got the chance to review his latest book into English, I was excited. Pasi is a Finnish language teacher and has a degree in Philosophy. He has published five books in Finnish and has won numerous prize in Finland for his books. This is his second book to be translated into English.

Greta Kara, The Author, answered his message two days later:

Well, hello yourself, Oll! How delightful that you decided to write to me! And you remembered the pear print dress, too! I’m flattered. I didn’t know if you would remember it, or even me, any more. I’m sure you’ve met thousands of interesting people since you knew me, and it’s been almost thirty year since we last saw each other 

The opening of her reply to his request of friendship on Facebook.

This is the story of Olli Suominen, Now middle-aged and settled with a family and son. He is busy trying to light a passion for films by joining a weekly film club and also using Facebook he is trying to reach out.When he gets a film guide written by an old flame.  He then requests a friendship from the woman  Greta an old school friend and flame. This also follows a number of his friends from that time reappearing. They as a group used to spend time exploring the secret passages that are hidden under the town he spent his childhood holidays. They were like a group of Blyton children in the day a sort of Finnish Famous Five discovering these secret places. But also in the present his wife and son are kidnapped, this is connected to the past so as we see him watching weekly films losing his umbrella and an act of the past is affecting his present. What happened why were Greta and he involved and why did they split? The beauty of this book is it has two possible endings written up.

He did have a faint memory of the secret passages games the Tourla five used to play , which must have put the idea of secret passages in Greta’s head. He and Karri and the Blomroose had pretended to find entrances to secret passages fittingly hidden spots around town and then spent days wandering in them. They had encouraged each other to invent everything a child’s imagination could think up and had been so caught up in their games that hey saw and heard non-existent things, The secret passages haf been enchanted and sometimes terrifying places.

The five in their youh looking under ground this also hides something about them all!

I really like this book it has a real quirky feel to it and in the times we are in with things like Brexit, we maybe need to be reminded how our ripple effect from writers in English have affected the world Enid Blyton and her world of kids on holiday having gripping adventures is one part of this book and shows her effect even now 40 days after her death. I loved the use of old films via his weekly film club. Films like in the mood for love wild one and much more make any film fan think of those films and work links to the story. Another gem from Pushkin press, this could be a man booker book but who knows. I like the dual ending how often have you felt well what if that happened !!