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The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna
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The Year of the Hare

A Novel

$10.76

Retail price: $11.95

Discount: 9%

This title is not eligible for purchase with membership credits. Why?

Narrator Simon Vance
Translator Herbert Lomas
Length 4 hours 36 minutes
Language English
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Vatanen, a journalist, is feeling burned out and sick of the city. One summer evening, he and a photographer set out on an assignment, and as they drive through the country, the car hits a young hare. Vatanen leaves the car to save the injured creature, and the grateful animal adopts him. This small incident becomes a turning point in Vatanen’s life as he decides to break free from the world’s constraints. He quits his job, leaves his wife, and sells his possessions to travel the Finnish wilds with his newfound friend. During their farcical adventures they encounter forest fires, pagan sacrifices, military war games, killer bears, political scandals, and much more.

Arto Paasilinna is a writer whose works have been at the top of the bestseller lists for twenty years. His books long remained unnoticed by Finland’s chronically antagonistic literary critics, but thanks to his great popularity, many of them have reassessed their opinions. In France, his books have not only proven bestsellers but also critical triumphs.

Simon Vance is the critically acclaimed narrator of approximately 400 audiobooks, winner of 27 AudioFile Earphones Awards, and a 12-time Audie Award-winner. He won an Audie in 2006 in the category of Science Fiction and was named the 2011 Best Voice in Biography and History and in 2010 Best Voice in Fiction by AudioFile magazine. 

 Vance has been a narrator for the past 25 years, and also worked for many years as a BBC Radio presenter and newsreader in London.  Some of his best-selling and most praised audiobook performances include Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies (an Audie award-winner), Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale, Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander series (all 21 titles), the new productions of Frank Herbert’s original Dune series, and Rob Gifford’s China Road (an AudioFile 2007 Book of the Year). Vance lives near San Francisco with his wife and two sons.

Herbert Lomas was educated at Liverpool University and has lectured in Finland and England. His publications include two collections of poetry, a paperback on possible social and economic change, and translations from Finnish poetry and prose.

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Reviews

“Paasilinna has been amusing Finns for thirty years and readers in twenty-five languages.”

“His protagonists…are like Vatanen, strong—some very strong—eccentric and often loners. He makes sardonic fun of Finnish bureaucrats, German tourists, the Finnish military and selfish young people.”

“When Mr. Paasilinna’s novel appears in this country for the first time next month, it might just prove the perfect way into the actual Year of the Hare, which begins, according to many an Eastern calendar, in January.”

“Paasilinna’s style is all Finn—a sly sense of humor, a simplicity, a moral compass that points firmly north and out of doors, away from cities…Readers root for Vatanen as he leaps off the mad merry-go-round.”

“A fable of the joys of freedom…The hare proves to be a delightful, undemanding, and loyal companion, who can laugh, listen, and feel embarrassment.”

“Amazing…It can be read over a long winter afternoon and will leave you feeling a little warmer inside.”

“Compelling…You might just find yourself wishing for a hare to enter your life in the near future.”

“Step out of the domestic gulag and into The Year of the Hare, a novel that depicts the confident freedom of the journeyman. I loved it.”

“I love The Year of the Hare…Which of us wouldn’t secretly want to live in a novel as fresh and as full of events as this one?”

“Escapism at its best…Just pure fun—a fantasy of what might happen if one day you just said, ‘Oh, the hell with it.’”

“Beguiling, gently ironic…[an] ode to spontaneity and serendipity.”

“Hilarious…With its fiercely independent protagonist and its depiction of Finland’s wild northland, this comic novel will offer readers a rare opportunity to experience Finland and read one of that country’s most popular authors.”

“This picaresque novel could simply depict a middle-age crisis, but it reaches beyond fantasy or fiction, becoming mythic in its universal themes. The story is inventive, satirical, and quite humorous.”

“Paasilinna’s story is somehow plausible…and it feels as though we, too, could so easily desert our responsibilities to others to follow what fulfills us. The glory of the outdoors is celebrated here, through each season, and we can nearly smell the early clover and meadow vetchling of the hare’s diet. Vatanen is who we want to be…No, scratch that—Vatanen is who we yearn to be brave enough to become, as soon as we stop waiting for the timing to be right.”

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