A gem of a novel * * New York Times * * Profound . . . Paasilinna's singular vision of freedom and persecution proves beguiling * * Guardian * * Part myth, part fable and part novel - a form that has a funny way of bypassing the head and directly affecting the animal instincts * * Los Angeles Times * * A literary folk tale . . . Extraordinary * * Times Literary Supplement * * It's a riotous novel, full of deadpan humour told in a comic style that, as the opening paragraph suggests, comes across like a fable * * booklit.com * *

Arto Paasilinna was born in Lapland in 1942. By turns a woodcutter, agricultural labourer, journalist and poet, he is the author of over twenty novels, all of which have been translated into numerous languages.