Shortlisted for the CWA Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger 2020
A man with dark thoughts on his mind is racing along the remote snowy roads of Hurmevaara in Finland, when there is flash in the sky and something crashes into the car. That something turns about to be a highly valuable meteorite. With euro signs lighting up the eyes of the locals, the unexpected treasure is temporarily placed in a neighbourhood museum, under the watchful eye of a priest named Joel.
But Joel has a lot more on his mind than simply protecting the riches that have apparently rained down from heaven. His wife has just revealed that she is pregnant. Unfortunately Joel has strong reason to think the baby isn't his. As Joel tries to fend off repeated and bungled attempts to steal the meteorite, he must also come to terms with his own situation, and discover who the father of the baby really is.
Transporting the reader to the culture, landscape and mores of northern Finland Little Siberia is both a crime novel and a hilarious, blacker-than-black comedy about faith and disbelief, love and death, and what to do when bolts from the blue - both literal and figurative - turn your life upside down.
Publisher: Orenda Books
ISBN: 9781912374519
Number of pages: 200
Dimensions: 198 x 129 mm
"As the standout scene in which Joel manipulates a corpse with the aid of a scarf while hiding in the back seat of an SUV suggests, none of this is meant to be taken too seriously; Antti Tuomainen is, after all, Scandinavia's answer to Carl Hiaasen. Nevertheless, Joel, suffering a crisis of faith, succeeds in facing this hilarious "series of unfathomable events" with admirable stoicism. "What should I think of this man? In the space of one night he has both saved my life and tried to kill me. Twice." Highly recommended." --Times Book of the Month "a gripping thriller whose complications pile to precarious, intoxicating heights."-- Foreword Reviews "[A] stunning comic noir...Fans of Scandinavian noir will relish this one."-- Publishers Weekly "With moral dilemmas, plenty of action, and the author's trademark mixture of humour and melancholy, this is Tuomainen's best yet." --Guardian "This enjoyable mystery explores how a bolt from above can, literally, turn your life upside down with both comedic and tragic consequences. Tuomainen continues to carve out his own niche in the chilly tundras of northern Finland in this poignant, gripping and hilarious tale." --Observer "While the plots of many Nordic noir writers are turning ever more grim, Finland's Antti Tuomainen opts these days for a wittier, lighter tough. So it is with Little Siberia, the tale of a meteorite that comes crashing into eastern Finland and eventually into the guardianship of local priest Joel. The rock is valuable and Joel is soon fending off the attempts of bungling criminals to steal it. Add Russians, a worrying pregnancy, a down-on-his luck rally driver and a neat subtext about faith, and Little Siberia (adroitly translated by David Hackston) is quite the ride." --Observer "Known as the king of Helsinki noir, Antti Tuomainen is among Finland's most acclaimed crime fiction writers. This forthcoming blacker-than-black comedy deals with the ramifications of a meteorite arriving in a small Finnish town." --Bookseller "Relentlessly funny. . . . Full of black ironies, this welter of suspicions, revenge, and hilarious physical and verbal combat makes some pungent reflections on life and death. Tuomainen probes the chilliest depths of noir comedy." --Publishers Weekly starred review of The Man Who Died "This one is a winner right from the first sentence. . . . An offbeat jewel." --Booklist starred review of The Man Who Died "U.S. audiences should prepare to be every bit as enthralled as the Finns. . . . Readers attracted either to dystopian fiction or to Scandinavian crime will find gold here." --Booklist starred review on The Healer "While Finland generally tends toward a reputation for the dour, Antti Tuomainen is bucking the trend with his hilariously dark crime comedies." --CrimeReads
I was hooked from the first page of the prologue: a man is driving at high speed through snow-covered Finnish wilderness whilst drinking vodka. He explains that a car’s top speed isn’t what the manufacturer says, it... More
In style Little Siberia very much follows on from Antti’s last book, The Man Who Died. The comedy is black and the story is a respectable (if somewhat unlikely) thriller. People are killed – sometimes in ‘hilarious’... More
Village life in the far north of Finland is disrupted when a meteorite crashes through the roof of a drunken ex-rally driver's car and the sky lights up.... As do the euro signs in the eyes of just about every... More
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