The Year of the Hare - Arto Paasilinna [0]
Title Page
Copyright Page
Foreword
Chapter 1 - The Hare
Chapter 2 - Statement of Account
Chapter 3 - Arrangements
Chapter 4 - Grasses
Chapter 5 - Arrest
Chapter 6 - The District Superintendent
Chapter 7 - The President
Chapter 8 - Forest Fire
Chapter 9 - In the Marsh
Chapter 10 - In the Church
Chapter 11 - Granddad
Chapter 12 - Kurko
Chapter 13 - The Raven
Chapter 14 - The Sacrificer
Chapter 15 - The Bear
Chapter 16 - The Dinner
Chapter 17 - The Fire
Chapter 18 - To Helsinki
Chapter 19 - Crapula
Chapter 20 - Humiliation
Chapter 21 - A Visit
Chapter 22 - The White Sea
Chapter 23 - In Government Hands
Chapter 24 - Afterword
PENGUIN BOOKS
The Year of the Hare
ARTO PAASILINNA was born in Lapland, Finland, in 1942. By turns woodcutter, agricultural laborer, journalist, and poet, he is also an award-winning author of more than thirty novels, all of which have been translated into numerous languages. He lives in Helsinki, Finland.
PICO IYER’S essay for The New York Times about leaving a life as a successful journalist for a simpler life became one of its most e-mailed articles. Iyer is the author of two novels and numerous nonfiction books about the cultures of the world. He has never been to Finland except through the pages of this book.
PENGUIN BOOKS Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. • Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) • Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England • Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) • Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) • Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi - 110 017, India • Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) • Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices:
80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
First published in Great Britain by Peter Owen Publishers 1995
First published in the United States of America by Peter Owen Publishers 2006
This edition with an introduction by Pico Iyer published in Penguin Books 2010
Translation copyright © Herbert Lomas, 1995 Introduction copyright © Pico Iyer, 2010
All rights reserved
Translated from the Finnish Janiksen vuosi
Publisher’s Note
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and
incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or
are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead,
business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA
Paasilinna, Arto, 1942-
[Jäniksen vuosi. English]
The year of the hare : a novel / Arto Paasilinna ; [translated from the Finnish by
Herbert Lomas] ; forward by Pico Iyer.
p. cm.
“Translation copyright Herbert Lomas, 1995”—T.p. verso.
eISBN : 978-1-101-47813-4
1. Rabbits—Fiction. 2. Human-animal relationships—Fiction. 3. Finland—
Fiction. I. Lomas, Herbert. II. Iyer, Pico. III. Title.
PH355.P22J’.54133—dc22 2010035411
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FOREWORD
Which of us has not had that wonderfully seditious idea: to play hooky for a while from life as we know it? To do a Gauguin, even in the depths of the Arctic Circle, dropping all the stuff that seems so important—a regular job, a good salary, a solid home—and going off in search of what