Summer Fishing in Lapland by Juhani Karila

Summer fishing in Lapland by Juhani Karila

Finnish fiction

Original title – Pienen hauen pyydystys

Translator – Lola Rogers

Source – Via Translator

I was contacted by Lola as, over the years, I have reviewed several books that she has translated from Finnish, and this had passed me by. Still, when I read the blurb of this book, I loved the idea it seemed to do the thing that Finnish fiction does very well, and that is genre-bending literature. Some of the recent books I have read are like this mix of murder and magical realism, and here, Juhani has used the myths and creatures of Lapland to tell a story of a fishing trip and a chase and the myths the writer obviously grew up listening to.  The other characters in this book are the nature and views of Lapland and the remote places they go fishing.

Elina got to the pond before the clouds did. She unhooked the black nine-centimeter Rapala lure from the rod line guide, pressed the reel release, and swung the rod back, ready to cast.

Then, on the other side of the pond, the knacky surfaced.It rose up out of the water slowly, like an ancient statue uncovered by a receding tide. It was as beautiful as a Greek god. Elina knew that it could look like a man or a woman or an androgyne, depending on the person it was trying to entice.

Anyone who made the mistake of looking into its eyes would get lost in them. Some people fell in love with the knacky, and some were so love-struck that they walked straight into the water and drowned.

She sess the Knacky on the opther side of the pond

The story follows an annual pilgrimage made by Elinas from the small village she grew up in east Lapland, and every year, she returns to take this pilgrimage to a lake to try and do battle again with the PIke of the lake. But this is also how she has reset herself yearly on those three days at the pond. But this time it is different as a spirit from the water appears, and they appear other creatures appear around her.  She sets of to fish, but the pike is a clever fish and is as elusive as ever as the Knacky spirit from the water appears. Then there is a side story of a detective, Janatuinen, who thinks Elina has committed a murder. He sets off immediately after his partner ensures he can’t make the trip north. He follows behind her, visiting the same bait shop, but he is an outsider, and the world he sees differs from Elina’s. The story drifts from the two main characters back into the youth of Elina as we see the two stories twist and turn, and we have a sprinkling of odd creatures, a sort of Finnish bigfoot, a hairy man-like creature, but he is a little dum,. Elsewhere, a farm hand is fighting off his own death but, at the same time, starts sprouting branches and leaves. This a quirky nove. Will he catch Elina? will she get her fish?

Janatuinen used Gunnarsson’s belt to make a tourniquet for his leg, then she drove him to the hospital entrance, waited for the nurses to get him and his suitcase out of the back seat, asked them to close the car door, and drove off without a glance in the rearview mirror.

It was a two-hour drive from Oulu to the border. One hour in, Janatuinen sat in a service-station café, eating breakfast and looking out the window. The wind was dying down. Birch branches tapped wearily against the glass, as if knocking to get in.The border came into view at nine a.m. The guard booth had a broken window. The window frame had been taken out and leaned against the wall of the booth. The barricade boom was broken, too, and had been carried behind the booth in two pieces. In its place was a green Suzuki jeep, parked in the middle of the road. A boy in a billed cap sat in the driver’s seat asleep, his head resting on the steering wheel.

His partner breaks his leg just as he is about to go nmorth to follow her

I loved how he has mashed up a murder, fishing, rural lapland and myths so well. I was reminded of the book from Olga Tokarczuk’s book Drive Your Plough a book that is set in the countryside and has a feel of myth and reality mixed at times. In an interview, he mentions an Estonian Novel, Old Barn by Andrus kivirähk. I looked this book up it hasn’t been translated into English another book has been translated, though.  I think I may have that one somewhere the cover looks familiar, so I may look and see if I brought it with me when we moved.  Andrej Sapkoski is another writer; he says he mixes myth and place well. A number of his books have been translated. This book has a real sense of place. The, swamps and world of Elinja’s youth jump off the page. Also the myths that come to life seem so real he has made it seem like a piece of magic realism rather than a work of fantasy. Have you a favourite Quirky novel from Finland?

Winston score – A -I love the quirkiness of Finnish fiction at times, they seem to mix genres so well

The Rabbit Factor by Antti Tuomainen

 

The Rabbit factor by Antti Tuomainen

Finnish fiction

Original title – Jäniskerroin.

Translator – David Hackston

Source – Library book

I posted this on the international crime dagger shortlist and it was a book that caught my eye earlier in the year when Karen had posted the cover. I had also seen a few blog reviews of the book. Hence, it was on my radar when I had seen lt in the library I decided I get it when it was shortlisted I decide to try and read the five books well four as I had already read and reviewed Bullet train and had this at hand it seemed like a small project for the next few months and Karen who I had met and known since she was at Arcadia books and know has Brenda books has always been very kind in sending books. Antti Tuomainen has won the best Finnish crime novel in the past this is a funny crime novel this book has been brought to be made into a film by Amazon with Steve Carell who is actually someone I imagine would be good as the main character from this book

I’m looking the rabbit in the eye when the lights suddenly go out. With my left hand, I squeeze the tube of industrial-strength glue, with my right hand I hold the screwdriver and listen.

In the half-dark the rabbit seems to grow, its head swells, its eyes bulge, the tips of its ears stretch upwards and seem to disappear into the dimness, it’s from teeth curve like an elephant’s tusks. in an instant, the three-meter-tall figure looks twice as tall, twice as wide and considerably more threatening, as though it was guarding the darkness within it. Now it seems to be watching mess if I’m an enticing carrot

The opening lines just make you smile and have a dark tinge to it as well !!

The book has Henri as its main character he is an insurance actuary (he. calculates the risks ) he is a man whose life is powered by numbers and is very ordered so when he first finds out when his brother died that he has inhered the amusement park that his brother owned. when he looks at the accounts being the sort of man he is Henri is shocked by what he finds and who his brother had had dealings with as he owns money to some criminal gangs that have kept the park afloat. The park is well full of oddballs a clubber past his best caretaker with dreams of bigger things amongst the park. this is what made me enjoy the book it is a book about clashing personalities and personalities when Henri meets the other main character in the book Laura she is the total opposite of him this free spirit of an artist but the two are drawn to each other as Henri tries to sort out what happened to his brother and how to get off the mess therein and how the park has been run with the criminal money. he has to start to try and sort it all out.  This ipark with the giant rabbit. The rabbit is in the opening lines as he mends the rabbit as shown on the cover with a broken ear. This has a bit of everything for all types of readers, not just Crime fans !!

Laura Helanto had dark-rimmed glasses and brown hair that curled and spread out like a bush until It touched her shoulders. Her eyes were blue-green and had an inquisitive alertness about them. She was around forty, perhaps a year or two over, just like me, about average height for a Finnish woman. I was rather adept at estimating people’s height because I was a tall man myself, one hundred and ninety-two centimetres, so I was used to continuous meaningless questions on the subject.

His first look at Laura

I loved this I maybe had in my head Henri as Steve Carell but he is that sort of character he has played straight-laced at times this is a classic take on the fish out of water story. Add to that the fact he finds out the crime gang has funded the park. This is a dark comedy of errors clashing souls a set of park workers that could have come of a comedy from the likes of league gentleman it shares that sense of when Henri enters the world of the park it was like stepping into a Royston Vassy in Finland a sort of world that has its own rules and cast of odd characters. As I said this is a book that has a wider appeal than just to crime fans it has a little romance as we see Laura ad Henri grow closer over the book, and dark comedy adds to that just some observances on human life and all. So if you took a pinch of Wodehouse, add a couple of dashes of nordic crime add a bit of surrealism and a pinch of the league of gentlemen and shake it in a cocktail shaker you’d have this book a special blend that has one of my all-time favourite covers I just love that rabbit lol.

Winstons score – +A genre-bending crime fiction worth seeking out !!

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 !!

 

The exiled by Kati Hiekkapelto

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Exiled by Kati Hiekkapelto

Finnish fiction

Original title – Tumma

Translator – David Hackston

Source – review copy

When I went to the London book fair earlier this year one of the people I finally got to meet after many years of chat on twitter was Karen who runs Orenda books a publisher of mainly crime fiction and a number of them in translation.So this Finnish novel is also one for Woman in translation month. This is the second book by Kati Hiekkapelto the Finnish writer lives on an island and is also a singer in a Punk band and  I have reviewed the first was defenseless this book also features the same detective but this time we follow Anne Fekete back home to the Balkan village of her birth. S

Just then Anne felt a violent shove at her back. She was buffeted against the table – so hard that Tibor’s wine glass toppled over.Golden yellow Furmint trickled over the edge of the table on to the ground and splashed on Anna’s trousers. Tobor leapt to his feer and shouted something, and it was then that Anna noticed her handbag had disappeared from the chair next to her.

“My handbag” she shouted. “Someone’s taken my handbag”

Tibor and Erno dashed into the crowd of people

Drink with people that knew her dad, he bag is taken by a thief .

Anne is back with her family in the Balkans on holiday when her bag get stolen one day. But when the thief is found dead by the river. Her passport and credit card had gone so when the local police take the death of the man who is a Romany, Anne natural instincts take over when the robbery happened she happened to see a young girl with the now dead man. But as she starts to investigate the crime, she is drawn into a bigger picture of refugees and how the Romani community is treated with in Serbia. Also into past crimes that someone wants to keep from Anne and also maybe involves Anne’s own family her own father was a local policeman. This book shows the growing intolerance to refugees and other ethnic groups that do not just fit in with the locals as the past and present collide and Anne finds more out about herself and her family.

“Wouldn’t it make sense to be sure this is the same man who stole my handbag? I think I’m the only reliable witness. Admittedly, I only saw him from behind. But I noted his size and what clothes he was wearing.

“He was found lying next to your bag” said the chief of police

“And if h’d been found next to a boat, would that automatically make him a fisherman? Or if he was near a church would you assume he was a priest ? or behind a hospital…”

Anne gets the push off by the police that makes her want to dig deeper into the crime .

This works well as it can be read as a standalone read, the problem with crime series novels is sometimes you need to read them in the series but with these books, I find you don’t .But what we do learn her is more of the mysterious Anne Fekete past, how a girl from the Balkans ended up as a Finnish police detective. Can Nordic noir work with out the ice and snow and dark night yes? This book is a multi layered book of murder, family, refugees, and secrets.  But this is more than a crime novel it is a look at modern society in Europe from the Balkans to Finland we could easily say the rise of hate of other is growing and a death like this has probably been overlooked in every country by the local police

White hunger Aki Ollikainen

White hunger by Aki Ollikainen

Finnish fiction

Translator – Fleur and Emily Jeremiah

Original title –  Nälkävuosi

Source – review copy

I carry on with my journey through books on the MBIP2016 contenders. This is the first if two Peirene titles that could be on the longlist and given Peirene recent history of always having a book on the old IFFP longlists it is a good shout that they should have one this year on the new prize. This was the debut novel by Finnish writer Aki Ollikainen it won the best debut novel in Finland the year it came out and even cooler was the fact the book had won something called  the Finnish book blogger book of the year.

The colour of death is white, at funerals, people wear black, the living that is even the deceased is in black, because he is dressed in best clothes he owned while alive, but his face is always white. When the soul leaves a human, only white remains.

The color is being drained from Juhani’s face the first to go was red, the colour of blood. Red changes into yellow, then yellow too, vanished, leaving grey, which is now gradually fading into white.

A brilliant description of the way a dying person turns sallow in the way they look then white after death.

Marja is the main character in this story we follow her and her two children as we follow her on her journey to try to get to the Russian city of \St Petersburg where she has heard there is bread to eat and food available. This is 1867 and it is the second year in the 3 year Finnish famine. This was after three rainy years  that saw crops fail which like Irish potato famine of the 1840’s the finnish problem is caused because they rely on Root crops for the main stable of their diet. What we see in part as the story of Marja desprate journey is the wider story that of the finnish government through a senator  who didn’t want to borrow money to save the population The minister Snellman struggles to cope with the crisis that has gripped his country (there is a good wiki page with info on these year ).This is one womans journey through hunger to save her kids and the boy they manage to gain along the way. as they survive on thing like poisons lichen bread and Pine bark.

By way of a response, the senator feels an icy breath on his face.

He spent the whole of yesterday leafing through the bible, reading about Joesph’s prophecy, about those seven lean and those seven fat cows. Years of crop failure have now passed, one after the other, but there is no sign of the fat cows on the horizon. Has his incessant talk of finlands beautiful forests been in vain ? are these people good for nothing, apart from tearing bark off trees to supplement their bread.

I like the way used the figure of the Senator and his life to show a wider picture of the famine

I loved this when I read it last year but as always I put it to one side and decide a quick reread and found myself even more captivated by the way Aki capture Marja desperate life. This is as one may say a warts and all account of a journey into hell. This uses one womans life to paint a great picture of true horror that saw one in five Finns die during these years of famine a really interesting story of famine hunger and the search for hope that isn’t just Finnish but universal in the nature Marja could be Mary on her way to Dublin , or Maryse on her way to Addis Ababa and so on. In 130 short ages Aki has maybe done a better job than Hamsun did in his great book Hunger at putting over how it feels to be hungry and struggling to find that food.

Have you read this book ?

 

The defenceless by Kati Hiekkapelto

The Defenceless by Kati Hiekkapelto

Finnish crime novel

original title – Suojattomat

Translator – David Hackson

Source – review copy

 

I come only with my punishment
There comes only my conviction
is my fate Running
In order to deceive the law
Lost in the heart
of the Great Babylon
They call me the Clandestine *
’cause I do not carry any identity papers

To a northern city
i went for work
I left my life behind
Between Ceuta and Gibraltar
I’m a just a rake on the sea
A ghost in the city
My life is prohibited

I choose the English translation of the Lyrics to Clandstine by Manu Chao a song about being an immigrant.

This is the first of three books from a new publisher Orenda books , which is run by Karen who used work for Arcadia books who published kati’s first book in English the Hummingbird .Kati Hiekkapelto is a prize winning finnish writer, she is also punk singer, performance artist and a special needs teacher (earns my respect as someone whoi supports people with learning disablities ,I know how hard it is to be a teacher ).She also lives on an isolated island in the very north of Finland .She also which is maybe the seed for this book taught Hungarians in the region of Serbia that has a large Hungarian population .This book won the 2014 best Finnish crime novel .

Sammy had arrived in Finland in the same manner and using the same route as the heroin that he knew so well, smuggled in to feed the hungry veins of Western Europeans: hidden in a truck belching thick exhaust fumes and driven across the endless steppes of Russia, illegally

The heroin continued on its way ; Sammy had stayed put

The opening lines and someone  is just  like drugs just a thing to be moved alive or dead they don’t mind these gangs.

Its been a while since I covered a number of  translated crime novel on this blog so to get sent three of what is the most popular genre for books in translation is a refresher for me of the genre so the first stop in the trio of Orenda books is Finland and the second book in the Anna Fekete series . The book starts when a body is found dead in the middle of the road .He may have been killed by a Hungarian Au-pair this is the case Anna Fekete is given  this case rings with her own past .Meanwhile her police partner Esko  is stuck in a case of trying to track a gang that are bring illegal immigrants to the Finland. As the two police officers follow each of the case like a candle burning a both ends a discovery brings the two case to an explosive end .Add to that a biker gangs one native Finns the other immigrants.

Anna sighed. She felt sorry for Gabriella: she would probably receive a minor punishment, but whatever it was the sentence would be a blow. It would be a nasty blot on her record. Would she ever get a job again ? At same time Anna felt a foul sense of satisfaction . Not exactly Shadenfreude, but something similar. What is about that girl that bothered me, she wondered. Why do I think this somehow serves her right?

The au pair gets off but is still involved as the case takes a twist .

I have read a number of Nordic crime novels during the time of this blog, For me The defenceless is up among the best. Anna Fekete leaps of the page, in this up to date novel .How often have we turn the TV on the last few years and seen stories about Immigrants and illegal gangs that bring them into countries what hiekapelto has done is taken that and used a crime novel to dissect the story from both ends the people who arrive in the country and the dreadful gangs that bring these people in dangerous circumstances. Kati has brought these threads together in what is a great Nordic crime novel with a slice of social conscience. I will be back with the other books from Orenda books .

Have you read any crime novel that tackle topical topics in their novels ?

When the doves disappeared by Sofi Oksanen

 

 

 

When the doves disappeared by Sofi Oksanen

Finnish fiction

Original title –  Kun kyyhkyset katosivat

Translator – Lola M Rogers

source – review copy

Dig if you will a picture
Of you and I engaged in a kiss
The sweat of your body covers me
Can you my darling
Can you picture this?
Dream if you can a courtyard
An ocean of violets in bloom
Animals strike curious poses
They feel the heat
The heat between me and you

How can you just leave me standing?
Alone in a world that’s so cold (So cold)
Maybe I’m just too demanding
Maybe I’m just like my father too bold
Maybe you’re just like my mother
She’s never satisfied (She’s never satisfied)
Why do we scream at each other?
This is what it sounds like
When doves cry

I choose this as when I read the book I kept calling it when doves cry not when the doves disappeared .I although you can read more into the prince lyrics like you can read more into this book .

Sofi first book in English was one of those rare books in translation that breaks out of the circle of translated readers and gets to a wider audience ,so how to follow-up that success ,well When the doves disappeared was for a me good choice it is based in a similar era to the first book Purge  and also is a story of two people like the first book .But that is where the similarity end . Sofi Oksanen is fast become a huge star of Nordic fiction ,winning the finlandia , nordic prize and the first finnish women to win the Swedish Nordic prize , she has also been women of the year in \Estonia which is part of her shared heritage finnish Estonian .So my fourth women in translation month read sees us going to Finland .

I knew that once Estonia was free again , people of good conscience would want to examine these years , and that would have to be evidence that we acted according to the law , But such thorough record keeping was a risk we couldn’t afford ,The acts of the bolsheviks had already proved that pur country and our homes where under the control of barbarians .

they look at 1941 at what they are doing now how it will be looked at in years to come .

The book is set in the Baltic state of Estonia and is the tale of two cousins Roland a freedom fighter and man of principal and his cousin Edgar a slippery man who when the German comes joins them and leaves both his cousin and his wife Juudit .The story is told in two eras  1941 just as Estonia is about to fall to the russians  and 1963 as the country is no under the stranglehold of the Soviet regime .The first era follows the fall then the Germans taking control of Estonia and Edgar rise as he sees a new Estonia under the Germans , but this is the frontline and this brief time of German rule is about to be wiped out by Stalin . The second era in the book shows how twenty years of Stalin and post Stalin rule has had on the country and the three main character in this book .

Comrade Part’s instinct was correct .In the list from 1944 he found a familiar name .Just a name , no date of death or indication of transfer to another camp or evacuation to germany ,A name he wished had been someone else’s .Anyone else’s .He had been searching for any name he recognized , but this was the very name he didn’t want to find , a name that felt like if he pronounced it out loud his tongue would be covered in blisters ,A name that shouldn’t even be on the list .Roland Simson.

Who is Part’s ? and is Roland really dead ?

I actually enjoyed this more than Purge , for me Edgar and Roland reflect two human characters the brave man and the coward . It shows how easy it is to get on if you try to be something you’re not when Edgar does when he joins the Nazis . But it also shows the cost of being brave and sticking to your guns . But most of all it shows how hopeless both sides are under the soviet regime years ago .The book is told at a fast pace jumping between the forties and sixties as we see the story of the three characters and the greater story of Estonia .This book is a worthy follow-up to purge from a rising star of Nordic fiction .

Have you read this or Purge ?

Comapartment No.6 by Rosa Liksom

Compartment No.6 by Rosa Liksom

Finnish fiction

Original title – Hytti nro 6

Translator – Lola Rogers

Source -Review copy

The soul is placed in the body like a rough diamond, and must be polished, or the luster of it will never appear.

Daniel Defoe

Well when this dropped though my door ,it was one I put straight to the top of the pile ,I’ve enjoyed all the recent books from Finland ,That I’ve read have been gems ,plus I’ve always had a fondness for books set on trains so two ticks meant it was a must read .Well Rosa Liksom is a Finnish based writer ,she is also a well-known artist in Finland .She has written 13 other books ,this Compartment No.6 is the latest by her ,it won the Finlandia prize in 2011 .

When the station bell rang for the second time she saw a muscular ,cauliflower-eared man in a black  working mans quilted jacket and a white ermine hat and with him a beautiful dark-haired woman and her teenage son ,keeping  close to his mother .

When she first sees Vadim Nikolayevich Ivanov on the station platform at Moscow .

Compartment No.6 Follows a train ride from Moscow on the Trans Siberian ,an unnamed finnish girl boards the train ,she searches and finds an empty compartment and settles down ,then her silence is shattered when a grizzled looking fellow enters the carriage , He then starts talking to the girl and telling her the story of his life at first she is a bit like a rabbit caught in the headlights not quite knowing what to do ,but as the train speeds through the russian hinterlands she warms to this rough diamond and maybe sees part of her own life in his stories ,as the train is stopped they experience the rough conditions of the Soviet era ,this is the late eighties ,initially the girls thoughts are on getting to Mongolia and see some cave paintings as she is an art student and meeting an old friend but as her and Vadium (the man ) ,grow see maybe sees her life in a wider view outside the life she grew up in .

The night speeds through the dark into dim morning , a dogged queue at the shrine of the WC , a dry wash among the puddles of pee ,sputum ,shame and sheepish looks ,shadows of steaming tea glasses in the window ,large flat cubes of Cuban sugar ,paper light Aluminium spoons ,black bread ,viola cheese ..

She captures life on the train so well the sights and sounds of Soviet life at that time .

Well this is one of those books you can tell came from a love of the writer ,it turns out the writer took a journey on the same train in 1986 ,where she herself shared a compartment with a Russian man .Rosa Liksom has the artist eye for detail so the little things of life in Soviet era Russia are caught so well .For me the story remind me of a very old friend that over the years I lost touch with but Like Vadium was a rough diamond ,yes I remembered my fist meeting Steve and thinking god this bloke is just awful he was a friend of a friend but then over the next few meeting ,I saw through the swearing tales of his very hard upbringing and got to know one of the kindest souls I ever met and regret losing touch with ,That said Vadium isn’t quite such a kind heart soul but he is more than he first appeared to the Girl and he is the person that opens her eyes on her world ,so like me with steve this is someone she will remember for the rest of her life .Rather like the last lines of  the film Stand by me ,a writer remember a friend and journey in younger life .

Have you a favourite book based on a train ?

 

The Human Part by Kari Hotakainen

The Human Part by Kari Hotakainen

Finnish Fiction

Original title – Ihmisen osa

Translator – Owen F Witesman

Source – review copy

Well day two of Maclehose press celebration here on Winstonsdad .I now move north from Italy to Finland and one of the most acclaimed writers Kari Hotakinen .He is a multi talented writer .He started as both a poet and Journalist,he is a columnist for the finnish newspaper   Helsingin Sanomat. He started writing novels in the mid nineties  this is his tenth novel,and his latest and the first I’ve read by him .It won the Runeberg prize Sofi Oksanen has also previously won this prize which awarded every year . .

My name is Salme Sinikka Malmikunnas ,and everything that I say will be printed word for word in this book .The author promised me this .In alarm he even suggested that my words be printed in italics ,which apparently emphasizes the importance of the words .

The opening lines of the novel .

So the premise of The human part is a sort off retelling of the old story of some one selling their life to someone else .In this case it is Salame an elderly lady who ran a button shop ,the cover is rather clever a red thread flows through the city and back to Salame at the bottom , she happens to  meets a writer he has writers block and is looking for a story ,so after much persuading and a wad of money she agrees to sell him her life story she had four but only three are still alive and they all have their own problems but their ,mother tends to view their lives with rose-tinted specs .So she starts her story  to the writer ,tell the story of herself ,husband  and her childrens lives .But what is the writer putting down in  writing as she speaks  and is her vision of the family the same as his vision of her family ? What will he write about her kids lives ? ,What will he make of the dark secret that lies at the back of the family ? All this and more is revealed as you move through her life and that of her kids as well  .

The author interrupted to say that he didn’t intend to turn the Dictaphone on for the whole time we were meeting .As he said this he took a notepad and pencil out of  his pocket .I said he needed to put those away while I was speaking as well .The author shock his head and reminded me that he had paid for goods that he would be taking with him in some form ,

The telling of her tale begins .

So its easy to see Salame and the writers pact to sell her story  to him .As a twist on the old Faustian tale of selling your soul to the devil of course the writer isn’t the devil but he does  makes Salame  begin of view her life in a darker way than she did  .the book is also a clever critic on modern Life in Finland but not just Finland ,we all see the world our own ways and we all see our families one way , because they are our family .This book yet again shows we live in an age of changing values of  the general public  and how much  people willing to reveal all about themselves if the  money  is right .Via this story we see pain and suffering with in the family unit in modern Finland  .This is a book that even thou it is set in Finland  , can ring true to every one in this modern world  .

Have you a favourite Finnish writer ?

 

The brothers by Asko Sahlberg

The brothers by Asko Sahlberg

Finnish fiction

Ordinal title – He (they in finnish )

Translator – Emily Jeremiah and Fleur Jeremiah

Source review copy

Asko Sahlberg is a Finnish writer he has written 10 novels and radio plays ,he has been up for the Nordic council prize and the Finlandia prize as well .He has previously work as a journalist and in advertising before turning to writing full-time ,he said about his writing “part only partly link in the chain, part of a long literary tradition” .This was his ninth novel and the first to be translated to English .

I have barely caught the crunch of snow and I know who is coming .Henrik treads heavily and unhurriedly as is his wont ,grinding his feet into the earth ,The brothers are so different .Erik walks fast ,with light steps ,he is always in a hurry ,here then gone .

The farm hand hears Henrik returning .

So The brothers does what it says on the cover and that it is the story of a pair of brothers .Henrik and Erik .The action is set in 1809 as Finland is fought over between Russia and Sweden .Peace has come and the brothers return to their farm ,having fought on opposing sides during the war .One brother Henrik  lost his girlfriend during the war and is returning after a long time away from the farm and his family .Then there is also Erik’s  wife ,the farm hand and the horse  to name a few .This book is told in sections by the characters so we see the story unfold bit by bit , of how awkward the rejoining of these two brothers .The house is full of tension as we finds the brothers at one point had been face to face on the field of battle .

This house is a cadaver .The others are too close to see it ,but it has already begun to decompose ,I flinch from its decay .It is a collection of bones had been unearthed and dressed in fine clothing to create the illusion of a real body

Henrik talking about his family’s farm

 

Well this is one of those books I read and got scared how to describe ,yet again Meike has shown her strength in choosing books for Peirene .This book so fits the theme of last years Peirene’s which was the year of small epics ,at 120 pages long thinking back on reading it and how I felt after I imagined it was a thick book because it seemed to convey so much about life brotherhood , Finland sex what it is to be a man  and death .It is compared to Shakespeare and such luminaries on the cover and yes there are parts that do compare with richard the thirds in place a story around the horse and the great line my kingdom for a horse may come to mind . but I felt it maybe does have origins in Scandinavian art  ,Sahlberg as a radio play  writer must have come across   the Danish film group Dogme 95 where the action is set mainly in one place and this book is the same the action is all at the farm-house although they talk about the past  present and future  .I was most remind of the Lars von Trier film Dogville which like this is set in one place and has some on appearing  like Henrik and changing what happens .Another point may even be the Finnish Epic Poem the Kalevala a sort of collection of Finnish folktales that formed the basis of Finland and early Finnish culture .A fine job has been done by the mother daughter team that translated this book .

Have you read this book ?