A review by lizlinguist
The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna

4.0

This is a weird book. It's good though, a real page turner that reads like a collection of vignettes. The chapters are extremely short and it barrels along at a blinding pace telling the story of Vatanen who adopts an injured wild hare and leaves his Helsinki life behind to take up odd jobs in Finland's northern region. There's a lot of action. Vatanen is broadly likable but often does things that are morally grey or actively unkind. In short, he is believable and multifaceted. The last third of the book loses it's way a bit for me, but I still enjoyed the conclusion.