Novel
The Year of the Hare
Jäniksen vuosi
Arto Paasilinna · 1975
Synopsis
Kaarlo Vatanen, a journalist in Helsinki, weary of his job, his wife and city life, is returning from an assignment with a photographer colleague when their car hits a young hare. He gets out, goes into the forest after the wounded animal and takes it in. Rather than find the car again and his former life, he decides to stay with the hare and sets off with it along the country's roads, from one small job to the next.
Context
Published in Finland in 1975, the novel has remained its author's best-known work and has been translated into many languages; in France, Denoël published it in 1989 in Anne Colin du Terrail's translation. UNESCO included it in 1994 in its collection of representative works, and Herbert Lomas's English translation appeared the following year. It has been adapted for the screen twice: by Risto Jarva in 1977, in Finland, then by Marc Rivière in 2006, in a French-Belgian-Bulgarian co-production.
Who it is for
A short novel of about two hundred pages, made up of comic episodes that follow one another over a year of wandering through the country.
Prizes and reception
This is the book by which the author became known outside his country; it remains available in paperback in French and in English.
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