Tag: Lola Rogers

Summer Fishing in Lapland by Juhani Karila

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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

When the doves disappeared by Sofi Oksanen

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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

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Compartment-No.6

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 ?