White Hunger by Aki Ollikainen

 review by Maryom

In 1867 after several years of failed harvests, a great famine descended on Finland, threatening the lives of all but the wealthiest. As winter takes hold, Marja's husband lies dying of hunger. Realising that if they remain on the farm, both her and the two children will die too, Marja leaves him and heads south towards St Petersburg where, rumours say, there's bread for all. Others are on the road too, a rag-tag hoard of beggars desperately seeking aid, and not all places are welcoming to starving travellers. Moved on from one place to another, Marja refuses to give up hope but keeps doggedly plodding on.
Meanwhile in the city, life goes on much as it always did - senators squabble over whose plan is the best to deal with the crisis, the rich refuse to help out, and Teo, a doctor, continues his work among the taverns and brothels of the seedier districts.
A chance meeting of Teo and Marja on the road leads to the first signs of hope....

White Hunger is a tale of endurance and hope. Marja's determination to continue despite the odds stacked against her, her constant belief that one day they will reach their goal and it will welcome them with open arms and full baskets of bread, is inspiring but heart-rending as her quest seems doomed from the start. Living hand to mouth, relying entirely on the kindness of strangers, her spirit seems indomitable even though starvation causes her mind to wander and her body to collapse. The reactions of the people she meets en route are understandable - everyone is suffering from the famine and, unless you're among the cosseted wealthy classes, to give even the smallest amount of bread or gruel to a beggar, may mean your own death.
Teo's experiences are different. Living in the city, he's comparatively sheltered from the dire effects of the famine, but he comes to realise that the problem of beggars roaming the countryside in search of food can't be solved by those like himself who have little real understanding of the plight of the people - a situation seen today in the attitudes of governments towards the poor and refugees.

It's a story that takes the reader to unknown places - with our centrally-heated houses and shop-bought food we're hardly likely to encounter such conditions, but the unrelenting frozen landscape slowly seeps into even the well-fed, armchair-snuggled reader's mind. I could easily imagine the frozen feet and hands, the soggy clothing, the tedium of taking to the road each day, the exhaustion at the end of it.
The story does end on a happier note with the return of warmer days in Spring and the natural hopefulness that comes with it, but there's a feeling of a nation waking from a long nightmare and still being haunted by it.

As a slight aside - Although circumstances are very different I found a lot of similarity between Marja and Izolda, the heroine of Hanna Krall's Chasing the King of Hearts published by Peirene a couple of years ago. Both women show a determination to cling on to every last scrap of hope and persevere through adversities, even though their goal seems to move further and further away.




 Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Peirene Press
Genre - Adult Literary Fiction, translated fiction 

translated from the Finnish by Fleur Jeremiah and Emily Jeremiah

The Rabbit Back Literature Society by Pasi Ilmari Jaaskelainen

review by Maryom

When she returns to her home town of Rabbit Back as a substitute literature teacher, Ella Milana expects it to be a temporary stay, a few months at most, but then she finds herself getting pulled into the weirdnesses of the town. Firstly, there's the matter of classic books that suddenly seem to have acquired different endings. Talking to the local librarian doesn't make matters clearer - could there be such a thing as a virus that passes from book to book causing this mayhem, or is it just idle printers playing practical jokes? Then she's selected as the tenth and final member of the Rabbit Back Literature Society. This very exclusive group was set up by local famous children's author Laura White to encourage young writers and help them achieve their dreams but, although all the members are highly respected, the inner workings of the Society are shrouded in mystery. Before Ella can properly join the Society, more things go awry and Laura White herself disappears as if by magic in a whirl of snow. Ella decides to take advantage of the Society's 'Game' to find some answers to her multitude of questions - under its rules, members must answer any questions posed as fully and frankly as possible. In this way she hopes to get to the bottom of Laura White's mysterious disappearance and to find out what happened to the boy-genius who was previously the tenth member of the Society. There are plenty of hidden secrets about to be unearthed....

The Rabbit Back Literature Society is a strange book to start to describe; in it the quirky and fantastical rub shoulders with the everyday world and 'serious' themes - so imagine something on the lines of a cross between Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next novels and Twin Peaks. Rabbit Back is a town populated as much by statues inspired by Laura White's novels as it is by people, a place where dogs congregate outside houses as if waiting for something or someone, and where having a 'mapping' taken to detect mythological creatures in your back garden is commonplace.
  I found it a little slow to start, as the opening chapters were not quite what I'd expected from the blurb, but as Ella investigated further into the mysterious behind-the-scenes world of the Literature Society my curiosity grew. Gradually a picture emerges of how the Society members, and even the founder, have exploited each other, lifting plots and characters for their best-selling novels straight from real life.
If you fancy something a little different, give this a go; it won't disappoint.

Maryom's review - 4.5 stars
Publisher - Pushkin Press
Genre - adult literary, fantasy

Other reviews; The Worm Hole

Mr Darwin's Gardener by Kristina Carlson

review by Maryom

A postmodern Victorian novel about faith, knowledge and our inner needs.
The late 1870s, the Kentish village of Downe. The villagers gather in church one rainy Sunday. Only Thomas Davies stays away. The eccentric loner, father of two and a grief-stricken widower, works as a gardener for the notorious naturalist, Charles Darwin. He shuns religion. But now Thomas needs answers. What should he believe in? And why should he continue to live?



Mr Darwin's Gardener is the story of not merely one man but of a whole community. Set in the late 19th century when Darwin's theory of evolution is challenging the accepted view, it shows the dilemmas that must have been felt the world over as people struggled to adjust their view of creation. The village of Downe is a sleepy provincial place - where everyone knows their neighbours' business and an accident with a  horse and cart is a great event. The inhabitants are traditional in outlook; believers in Sunday church attendance and meting our their own rough justice. The women gossip over their charity work or at their book club; the men set the world to rights at the inn. An atheist from far-away Wales, Thomas Davies, Mr Darwin's Gardener, is an outsider in many ways. He has been widowed for 3 years but is still struggling to overcome his grief and carry on living. His extreme anguish at the time of his wife's death, seen in the burning of her bed and clothes, is beyond the comprehension of his more measured neighbours. Thomas doesn't believe in God, putting his faith in Mr Darwin and his scientific principles but can these give comfort to a grieving man?

The latest offering from Peirene press is something slightly different, an odd quirky book, a sort of cross between Cranford, Under Milk Wood and The Waves. The story is told, as stream of consciousness fragmented thoughts, through the voices of the villagers of Downe - and also the birds that watch their comings and goings. It gives a slightly fragmented feel to the story-telling, a bit like having several people talking to you at once, but once you've caught the rhythm of it, you see the world from inside their minds.


To me, it seemed like I could only see the shape of the novel once I'd reached the end. Couple that with the fact that outside events had made my reading scrappy and interrupted, and I decided to do an unusual thing - read it again straight away! The second reading was far better. I understood and could appreciate how the story was told from multiple points of view. Putting it down frequently is NOT the way appreciate it.

Maryom's review - 4.5 stars
Publisher - Peirene Press
Genre - Adult Literary Fiction

Translated from the Finnish by Emily Jeremiah and Fleur Jeremiah.

Buy Mr Darwin's Gardener from Amazon or check out the Peirene website for subscription details

The Brothers by Asko Sahlberg

Finnish Epic

review by Maryom

The Brothers is the first offering in Peirene Press' Year of the Small Epic, the tale of Henrik and Erik - two brothers different in almost every way: one is courageous and adventurous, going off to see the world and make his fortune; the other is steadier, the type to stay at home and tend the family farm; one appears to have everything he could want; the other is thwarted at every turn. Through accident, the brothers found themselves on opposite sides as the Russians and Swedes fought over Finland, and as the story opens Henrik returns home for the first time after the ending of the war - the perfect dramatic set-up for an opening up of old wounds and long-held grudges on, yes, an epic scale!

The Brothers is another wonderful offering from Peirene Press - one which might top Portrait of The Mother as a Young Woman by Friedrich Christian Delius as my favourite.
A "small epic" seems a curious oxymoronic thing but although The Brothers is short on pages it's certainly not short on plot or characterisation. In just over 120 pages Sahlberg brings to life a family drama of long simmering resentment, sexual tension, financial mismanagement and long hidden secrets. It's rather like watching an intensely focused, dramatically packed 90 minute film, instead of the slow progression of a 12 part TV series. I loved the depth of characterisation and scope of the action achieved in such a small space.
There's something reminiscent of Greek tragedy to the story in the inevitable working out of fate and also in the presentation - each character talks directly to the reader, revealing his/her thoughts, desires and secrets and the action is seen through their eyes. Yet the opening sequence has all the hallmarks of a Western - the crunch of footsteps as Henrik approaches, the measured step, his slow appraisal of his surroundings, for all the world like a gunslinger walking up the main street of a Wild West town. Once you start to think "western" a lot of other things fit in - the horse, the girl, the squabbles over land -perhaps it just underlines the timeless quality of the story.

Translated from the Finnish by Emily Jeremiah and Fleur Jeremiah

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Peirene Press
Genre - Adult Literary Fiction, translated fiction, Finland

Other reviews; Iris on Books , Tony's Reading List

The Year of The Hare by Arto Paasilinna

Adventures in the Wilds of Finland
review by Maryom

A humorous little book about the adventures that befall Kaarlo Vatanen, a world-weary journalist, after he decides to rescue a hare injured by the car in which he was travelling. The colleague driving the car refuses to wait and heads home to the city, leaving Vatanen stranded. This monir incident sparks a major life-change. Vatanen leaves his wife, resigns from his job and sells his possessions to set out on a wandering journey of discovery around Finland.
On their way, Vatanen and the hare meet many strange, even bizarre, characters, run into forest fires, sleeping bears and military war games, and discover some very odd things about the country's President.
By turns whimsical, serious or totally absurd, I found it rather reminded me of the original Reggie Perrin's antics.

I'm reading this as part of my Round The World challenge - so that's Finland visited.

Maryom's review - 3 stars
Publisher - Peter Owen
Genre - humour, adult

Buy The Year of the Hare from Amazon