27. January 2014

Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen - Lumikko ja yhdeksän muuta

Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen

Lumikko ja yhdeksän muuta

Atena 2006

Lumikko ja yhdeksän muuta is one of my favorite books and I was overjoyed to see that it has finally been translated into English so that people outside of Finland can see what a great novel it is too! Apparently it will be translated into German as well by Aufbau Verlag.

The English title is The Rabbit Back Literature Society and has been published by Pushkin Press in London. If you visit their website, you will see that they have an interesting selection of books.

I’d love to read this one a second time, but unfortunately I don’t own it, having loaned it from either the Muonio or Kittilä library while living in Finland. Which only means that I shall have to make a book-buying trip to Helsinki (um, I mean, to visit relatives of course and visit bookstores in-between…). If I don’t pack any clothing, I can bring back 23 kg of books.

Here is the English text from the Pushkin Press website:

A highly contagious book virus, a literary society and a Snow Queen-like disappearing author.

“She came to realize that under one reality there’s always another. And another one under that.”

Only very special people are chosen by the children’s author Laura White to join ‘The Society’, an elite group of writers in the small town of Rabbit Back.

Now a tenth member has been selected: Ella, literature teacher and possessor of beautifully curving lips.

But soon Ella discovers that the Society is not what it seems. What is its mysterious ritual, ‘The Game’? What explains the strange disappearance that occurs at Laura’s winter party, in a whirlwind of snow? Why are the words inside books starting to rearrange themselves? Was there one a tenth member, before her?

Slowly, disturbing secrets that had been buried come to light…

In this chilling, darkly funny novel, the uncanny brushes up against the everyday in the most beguiling and unexpected of ways.

Pasi’s Blog, some of which is in English (which is great, despite his blog comment: “…English is for me like a bagpipe in the hands of a rabbit when I try to express my thoughts with accuracy and precision.” Paints an amusing picture, though! )