The Cinematic Life: A Novel by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen

Harjukaupungin salakäytävät by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen

The Cinematic Life: A Novel
[Harjukaupungin salakäytävät]
by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen

Ateena, 2010

Speculative fiction author Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen takes a plunge into magical realism, with cinematic results. More on this book (soon) as the project progresses. Pasi is being represented by the Kontext Agency.

An English sample and synopsis are available.

 

Reviews:

Jääskeläinen (…) offers international quality”

Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen, a schoolteacher in Jyväskylä, has a third surprise in store for the Finnish reading public. His first novel, Lumikko and Nine Others (2006), and his short-story collection, The Zoo that Fell from the Sky (2008) caused critics to compare him to JK Rowling, the creator of Harry Potter.

The recently released Harjukaupungin salakäytävät (literally “The Secret Passages of the Hill City”) accelerates the pace. In it, urban development, Enid Blyton’s Famous Five, the cinematization of one’s own life, dreams, childhood memories, and a touch of mysticism all intermingle.

Publisher Olli Suominen is living a steady life with his family until he connects with his childhood sweetheart Kerttu Kara through Facebook. She has become a best-selling author, and Olli manages to land her next book for his own publishing house. But when Kerttu comes to Jyväskylä to refresh her childhood memories for the book she’s writing, will Olli be able to focus on his own family life anymore?

Jääskeläinen creates an engaging package, the puzzles within which the reader desperately wants to solve. As in his debut novel, Jääskeläinen again plays with different options, offering his reader an original world where everyday reality sometimes takes on a dreamlike quality — until you thump back solidly on the ground. Harjukaupungin salakäytävät is a smooth-reading, layered novel that entices the reader along.

In the new Finnish literature, Jääskeläinen stands out refreshingly, to his credit. As a writer he has a touch that seems light but contains depth and offers international quality.

Salla Brunou

Etelä-saimaa (28.12.2010)