We found another book on the bookshelf. I don't remember to read anything from Finnish authors, so most probably this is my very first novel of Finnish origins.
This is a somewhat spooky fantasy story about a the imaginary Rabbit Back Literature Society. The book has many different genres in it. One part is like a thriller, some other parts like fairy-tale and another part is philosophical or psychological pondering, at once I even felt some horror in the lines. The book starts with somewhat slow, but it was still enjoyable to be shown around in the novel's world. The main character Ella Milana is a literature teacher in the village called Rabbit Back. She gets chosen to be member of the famous Rabbit Back Literature Society and due to some spooky events she learns that the society might be wilder than she originally expected.
The members of the society are Martii Winter, Ingrid Katz, Helinä Oksala, Aura Jokinen (alias Arne C. Ahlqvist), Silja Saaristo, Elias Kangasniemi, Toivo Holm, Oona Kariniemi, Anna-Maija Seläntö and of course Ella Milana. We get some information about the members, but mainly four of them are interesting in in regards of the story: Martii, Ingrid and Aura. The Society was established the well known Finnish children book author Laura White who wrote the Creatureville series according to the facts of the book's reality.
Along the literary journey Ella learns from a society member how to swear when things go wrong, she also learns that sometimes people can tell their memories only from their world which may well be a completely different one than her.
The books are rearranging themselves in the library and on Laura's shelves and this property of the books is contagious, so other books can get the disease through physical contact. The sometimes quiet antagonists of the historical research that Ella makes on the past of the society are the dogs in front of Martii Winter's house. The number of those dogs are steadily increasing in the novel and peaks at thirty something. It turns out that there is a phantom in Martii's well-fenced back garden and it is a dangerous enemy of the truth.
The lost tenth member of the society turns out to be an important one, his name is Oscar Södergran and his role was to inspire the rest of the members through his extraordinary capabilities.
The message of the book for me was the following. There are events and facts in life that cannot be understood completely and that is all right as far as these don't frighten us. It is important not to live in fear of something that may hunt in the back garden, but instead go and find the truth and let the years (symbolized by dogs) clean up the rest. It's not allowed to be afraid and do nothing about it. Those that are the most fearful parts of life may not exists at all. We may realize this when we decide to visit those fearful places/parts/elements/questions and face with their reality.
Nincsenek megjegyzések:
Megjegyzés küldése