by Arto Paasilinna
Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Dec 2010
208 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
Suddenly realizing what's important in life (with the help of a bunny), a man quits his job and heads to the countryside in this internationally bestselling comic novel.
"Which of us has not had that wonderfully seditious idea: to play hooky for a while from life as we know it?" With these words from his foreword, Pico Iyer puts his finger on the exhilaratingly anarchic appeal of The Year of the Hare.
While out on assignment, a journalist hits a hare with his car. This small incident becomes life-changing: he decides to quit his job, leave his wife, sell his possessions, and spend a year wandering the wilds of Finland - with the bunny as his boon companion.
"It's cute enough, if baldly obvious in the way that parables often are." - Publishers Weekly
"The story is inventive, satirical, and quite humorous. It is also refreshingly sentimental in the sense that Paasilinna reaffirms our connection with the animal world and our inherent need for happiness and freedom to maintain quality of life." - Booklist
"A spare narrative about a social misfit and a hare, halfway between fairy tale and fable, that builds with an unexpected cumulative impact. Perpetually unpredictable and constantly heartwarming, it's a book to read slowly and savor." - Shelf Awareness
This information about The Year of the Hare was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Arto Paasilinna is an award-winning author of more than thirty novels, all of which have been translated into numerous languages. The Year of the Hare was first published in 1975 but has not been available in English until now. It is Paasilinna's second novel to be translated into English following The Howling Miller.
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