1) Arto Paasilinna
One of the most famous authors in Finland is Arto Paasilinna. He was
born in Lapland in 1942. He wrote a lot of novels whose many are translated in
French.
His name, Paasilinna, has been invented by his father. It means “stone
fortress” in Finnish.
His novels are characterized by an unusual narrative sense of humor with
singular characters living in several regions of Finland. Nature is very
important in his novels, it is a full character. It’s why, Paasilinna’s work is
described by “ecological humor novels”.
I have chosen to read one of his first novels, Vatanen’s hare written in
1975. It is also the most famous Paasilinna’s novel and it has been adapted in
1977 for a movie. The story deals with a journalist living in Helsinki who hit
a hare with his car. He looked after the animal and went to the forest with it.
They traveled during several seasons and walked across the Finland, as far as
Lapland.
2) The Moomins
The Moomins (Muumi in Finnish) are characters in famous Finnish books
then cartoons created by Tove Jansson. They look like white hippopotamus.
I saw several passages on Youtube but also, when I was a child I used to
watch one cartoon video cassette that I had.
We can find these characters everywhere in the shops on cups, cloths,
dishes, accessories, soft toy, etc… I bought several moomin items for my
family.
It even exists an amusement park Muumimaailma (The world of Moomins) in
Naantali in the southwest of Finland.
