Exploring Finland: 10 books from the land of a thousand lakes

A list of books to read from Finland

I want to start this list with the only Finnish writer I knew beforehand. Most will know Tove Jansson as the creator of the beloved world of the Moomin trolls, but this is a book for adults. And allegedly her own favourite.

The Summer Book takes you on a journey through the simplicity and intricacies of life, as seen through the eyes of a wise but cranky grandmother and her impetuous 6 year old granddaughter. They spend their summer on a small island in the Gulf of Finland. They craft boats out of bark and tackle the universal questions that captivate young and old: What is life and death? What is the nature of love and God? An enchanting book that will make you feel the summer breeze and hear the rustling leaves as you turn the pages.

The Kalevala is a national epic created by scholar Elias Lönnrot based on Finnish mythology and oral folk poetry from the region of Karelia (now partly under Russian rule). Elias Lönnrot made numerous trips to Karelia to collect verses and poems, and published the Kalevala in its final form in 1849. It played a central role in the process toward Finnish independence.

The work has heavily inspired J. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and its elfish language. And though it sounds like it would be difficult, according to several Goodreads reviews it is also genuinely readable and a fantastic mythical adventure.

A mythical poetry epic might be a bit too much, you say? Then how about Finland’s most celebrated literary treasure? The story of seven brothers who opt out of society to live in the wilderness, only to be slowly lured back to civilisation. It is an exceptional description of the Finnish people and their lives in the 19th Century.

The story has become woven into the fabric of contemporary Finnish society, with spin-offs, theatre, TV and ballet adaptations. People name their children after the brothers, designers have taken on inspiration from the story, and there is even a Seven Brothers knitting yarn used to make wool socks.

In Norway we had a man and his moose. Finland has a man and his hare.

One summer evening a burned-out journalist on an assignment hits a young hare on a country road. This incident causes him to rethink his entire life. He quits his job, leaves his wife, sells his possessions and goes freestyling through the Finnish wilderness with his newly found friend.

This witty portrayal of a man’s detour from conventional living is a much-loved classic in Finland. And it has apparently achieved something like cult-status in France. There is a French-Belgian-Bulgarian film adaptation from 2006. I don’t know about you, but I’m intrigued.

Fishing for the little pike is an utterly original, genre-defying story of a young woman’s annual pilgrimage to her home in Lapland to catch an elusive pike in three days. A pilgrimage complicated by a host of mythical creatures, a murder detective hot on her trail, and a deadly curse hanging over her head.

In a Danish online bookstore I saw this novel described as a “mildly ironic, exuberant, folkloric eco-thriller-comedy slash love story”. But they shelved it as modern fantasy. And I continue to be intrigued.

Let’s turn from the mildly intriguing to the downright strange. Mikhael, a young, gay photographer finds in the courtyard of his high-rise apartment a small. man-like creature. It’s a troll – a beast from Scandinavian legend, now used to frighten unruly children. It’s a demonic beast, a hybrid like a werewolf. He calls him Pessi and then he makes a terrible mistake – he takes him home with him. And trolls exude pheromones …

The novel has won several awards including the James Tiptree, Jr. Award in 2004 for works of science fiction or fantasy that expand or explore the understanding of gender.

Only very special people are chosen to join ‘The Society’, an elite group of writers in the small town of Rabbit Back. Now Ella has been selected as the tenth member. But soon she discovers that the Society is not what it seems. What is its mysterious ritual, ‘The Game’? What explains the strange disappearance that occurs at the winter party, in a whirlwind of snow? And why are the words inside books starting to rearrange themselves? In this chilling, darkly funny novel, the uncanny brushes up against the everyday in the most beguiling and unexpected of ways.

If you have had enough of trolls and the supernatural, turn your eyes to a work of gritty historic realism.

Under the North Star follows the life of a Finnish family from 1880 to 1950, through the First World War, the Finnish Civil War and the Second World War. Through the lives of ordinary people, it describes the clash of ideals in Finland’s language strife and the struggle between the Whites (nationalists) and the Reds (Bolsheviks) in the movement to Independence and Civil War. The book is considered the most significant work of Finnish literature published during the country’s independence.

In 1947 a woman arrives in Finnish Lapland on a journalistic assignment, but her real motivation is personal – this is where her husband was last seen before he disappeared during the war.

As her probing questions are met with silence and hostility, she begins to investigate the fault-lines in this small community. And her friendship with a young Sámi girl helps her piece together why the town does not want to dwell on the past. From the starkly beautiful polar landscape emerges a story of silenced memories and ongoing oppression.

And funnily enough the last book on the list also starts in 1947. This novel was a huge bestseller in Finland, but the main reason for me including it here, is that the author was born in the Finnish autonomous territory of Åland Islands, and the book is set here.

In Ice, the young priest, Petter, his wife and baby daughter, arrive by mail boat at a tiny island. They are to take over its drafty homestead from where Petter is to minister to the scattered community. Told through the eyes of Petter, the wholehearted if naive novice priest, and Mona, his tough-minded wife, a story unfolds that is as immersive as it is heartrending.