I’m pleased to be taking part in the blog tour for Little Siberia today. My review is written with thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me on the tour.

Blurb:

A man with dark thoughts on his mind is racing along the remote snowy roads of Hurmevaara in Finland, when there is flash in the sky and something crashes into the car. That something turns about to be a highly valuable meteorite. With euro signs lighting up the eyes of the locals, the unexpected treasure is temporarily placed in a neighbourhood museum, under the watchful eye of a priest named Joel.

But Joel has a lot more on his mind than simply protecting the riches that have apparently rained down from heaven. His wife has just revealed that she is pregnant. Unfortunately Joel has strong reason to think the baby isn’t his. As Joel tries to fend off repeated and bungled attempts to steal the meteorite, he must also come to terms with his own situation, and discover who the father of the baby really is.

Transporting the reader to the culture, landscape and mores of northern Finland Little Siberia is both a crime novel and a hilarious, blacker-than-black comedy about faith and disbelief, love and death, and what to do when bolts from the blue – both literal and figurative – turn your life upside down.

Review:

I’ve read two of Antti Tuomainen’s previous novels and thoroughly enjoyed them so I was pleased to be given the opportunity to read Little Siberia for the blog tour. It is a little different to its predecessors in that the tone is darker, but I was still mesmerised by the author’s writing and his ability to transport me to Finland and make me feel part of a small community. It still manages to be quite surreal though – they are aiming to steal a meteorite after all! I must also give credit to the translator who has done a wonderful job of making Tuomainen’s poetic words come alive in English.

Little Siberia is narrated by Joel, the local priest. I warmed to him immediately with his fairly relaxed attitude towards religion (he obviously believes in God but understands that others may not share his beliefs) and compassion towards the members of the public he serves. He has a loving relationship with his wife, and this humanity is what encouraged me to feel sympathy towards him as the novel progressed.

There is often a sense of danger in Little Siberia, especially towards the end which creates a huge amount of tension. I was holding my breath as the story played out, desperately hoping that everything would end well. There are a few twists as the story comes together, which also kept me on edge until the end.

Little Siberia is available from Amazon.

You can follow the rest of the blog tour here: