Fishing for the Little Pike - by Juhani Karila (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In the utterly original, genre-defying, English-language debut of Finnish author Juhani Karila, a young woman's annual pilgrimage to her home in Lapland to catch an elusive pike in three days is complicated by a host of mythical creatures, a murder detective hot on her trail, and a deadly curse hanging over her head.

When Elina makes her annual summer pilgrimage to her remote family farm in Lapland, she has three days to catch the pike in a local pond or she and the love of her life will both die. This year her task is made more difficult by the intervention of a host of deadly supernatural creatures and a murder detective on her tail.

Can Elina catch the pike and put to rest the curse that has been hanging over her head since a youthful love affair turned sour? Can Sergeant Janatuinen make it back to civilization in one piece? And just why is Lapland in summer so weird?

Fishing for the Little Pike is an audacious, genre-defying blend of fantasy, folk tale, and nature writing.

Review Quotes

"Karila keeps things fanciful and funny even as the story's folklore elements descend into the dark and disturbing, thanks to his exuberant embrace of the godforsaken landscape and its inhabitants. This twisted love letter to the rural region leaves a lasting impression." -Publishers Weekly

"Karila's fusion of crime story and folkloric fantasy is well realised, neither too whimsical nor too serious, with a lovely sense of its own absurdity and an unimprovable message about learning in adulthood to forgive oneself for youthful follies. It manages, too, to make Lapland and its inhabitants seem both unutterably enchanting and utterly bonkers." -Financial Times

"The book, full of original characters, is as entertaining as a picaresque novel, with a masterfully entwined murder mystery. The hilarious storytelling only emphasizes serious topics instead of hiding them: a human's relationship with nature, searching for self, and feelings of guilt and love." -Jury statement for the 2020 Jarkko Laine Literature Prize

"Karila's magnificent novel is magic realism with a Lappish twist. The soul of this book lies in its language. The story's eco-philosophical view of life digs deep into the Nordic landscape, and its description is Finnish prose at its best." -Jury statement for the 2019 Kalevi Jäntti's Literature Prize

"Seasoned with several additional storylines and all kinds of mythical creatures, this rich novel is a delight; even better, however, is a warmly ironic portrayal of the locals. Nothing bewilders these colorful characters, even the most unbelievable, odd things are perceived as an everyday given." -Toni Jerrman, Helsingin Sanomat

"This son of Lapland has truly hit a bull's-eye; as someone who has a teacher's mentality, I feel like giving him 6 stars out of 5 - and this is exactly what I will do. Juhani Karila stretches the limits and borders of the normative world so wildly, that it only seems appropriate for the literature critic to do the same. Karila writes world literature in a carnevalesque spirit of Rabelais and with Don Quijote type of characters - only he digs even deeper." -Jussi Leinonen, Lapin Kansa

"In Fishing for the Little Pike, the first novel from Juhani Karila who has previously distinguished himself as short-stories' writer, the author cooks up such a fix of love story and thriller, realism and fantasy, folk comedy and all sorts of popular beliefs that it should remedy the worst case of humorlessness. Kalevi Jäntti's prize was delivered to the right address." -Raijan kirjareppu book blog

"This is an incredibly bizarre book, in the very best way. Karila has created a once in a blue moon work, where mythological creatures and curses are everyday life for the people of Lapland. At times hilarious and others sad, this is truly spectacular." -Zack Ballinger, Third Place Books

About the Author

Juhani Karila is an award-winning author and journalist with a master's in communication theory. In 2010, Karila won the J.H. Erkko Award, and his first collection of short stories Gorilla (2013), was nominated for the Helsingin Sanomat Prize. His second collection, The Death of the Apple Crocodile (2016), is a series of connected stories about the collision of large and small worlds. Karila's debut novel Fishing for the Little Pike (2019) won the Kalevi Jäntti Prize and Tähtifantasia Prize, and was nominated for the Jarkko Laine Prize. He currently lives in Helsinki, Finland.

Lola Rogers is a full-time literary translator living in Seattle. She has translated novels, short stories, children's books, comics, and poetry. Lola's translation of Sofi Oksanen's novel When the Doves Disappeared was a finalist for the 2016 Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize, and her translation of Johanna Sinisalo's The Core of the Sun received the 2017 Prometheus Award. Lola is a founding member of the Finnish-English Literary Translation Cooperative.