Secret Passages in a Hillside Town
by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen
Just when I thought I was reading more Nordic surrealist fun, life treated as a classic film script as a way of solving mid-life crises, the dangers of resurrecting the past become much more apparent as buried truths and obsessions are unearthed. For readers who, like me, enjoy a challenge.
Extract
Grandpa Notary once said, 'Never poke at the past with a stick, because you never know what you'll turn up.' Olli knew his Grandpa would have hated Facebook. Life was made up of meetings and partings. You get to know people and then you forget them .... But Facebook shrinks the distances between people with a couple of clicks and forces them to stay in touch forever. In that sense it's like something out of Dante's vision of Hell.
Translated by Lola Rogers
Parallels
Domino by Ross King
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Melancholia - the film