Arto Tapio Paasilinna (, approximately ; 20 April 1942 – 15 October 2018) was a Finnish writer, being a former journalist turned

comic novel A comic novel is a novel-length work of humorous fiction. Many well-known authors have written comic novels, including P. G. Wodehouse, Henry Fielding, Mark Twain, and John Kennedy Toole. Comic novels are often defined by the author's literary ...

ist. One of Finland's most successful novelists,exVirtual Finland, 2007 Archived at

Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and see ...

. he won a broad readership outside of Finland in a way few other Finnish authors have before. Translated into 27 languages, over seven million copies of his books have been sold worldwide, and he has been claimed as "instrumental in generating the current level of interest in books from Finland". Paasilinna is mostly known for his 1975 novel '' The Year of the Hare'' (''Jäniksen vuosi''), a bestseller in France and Finland, translated into 18 languages, awarded three international prizes, and adapted twice into feature films: a 1977 Finnish film directed by

Risto Jarva Risto Antero Jarva (15 July 1934 – 16 December 1977) was a Finnish filmmaker. Jarva usually approached his long films and short documentary films from some social problem and from one or more possible ways to solve it. Such problems included t ...

called '' The Year of the Hare'', and a 2006 French film directed by

Marc Rivière Marc Rivière is a French director, actor and screenwriter. He has worked extensively in French television. He directed the 2009 historic television drama La reine et le cardinal set during the early years of the reign of Louis XIV of France ...

called ''

Le Lièvre de Vatanen ''The Year of the Hare'' (french: Le Lièvre de Vatanen) is a 2006 French, Belgian and Bulgarian film directed, written and produced by Marc Rivière. It is based on the 1975 novel '' The Year of the Hare'' by Arto Paasilinna, which has previous ...

''. Arto Paasilinna's brothers are the writers

Erno Paasilinna Erno Paasilinna (14 March 1935, in Petsamo – 30 September 2000, in Tampere) was a Finnish writer and journalist. He received several literary prizes, the most notable being the Finlandia Prize in 1984 for his collection of essays ''Yksinäisyys ...

Reino Paasilinna Reino Paasilinna (5 December 1939 – 21 July 2022) was a Finnish politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP). He was a member of the Social Democratic Party of Finland, which is part of the Party of European Socialdem ...

and

Mauri Paasilinna Mauri (from which derives the English term "Moors") was the Latin designation for the Berber population of Mauretania, located in the part of North Africa west of Numidia, in present-day northern Morocco and northwestern Algeria. Name ''Mauri'' ...

Early and family life

Arto Paasilinna was born on 20 April 1942 in the Alakylä part of the municipality of

Kittilä Kittilä ( se, Gihttel, smn, Kittâl, sms, Kihttel) is a municipality of Finland and a popular holiday resort. It is located in northern Finland north of the Arctic Circle within the Lapland region. The municipality has a population of () and ...

, in

Lapland, Finland Lapland ( fi, Lappi ; se, Lappi; smn, Laapi; sv, Lappland; la, Lapponia, links=no) is the largest and northernmost region of Finland. The 21 municipalities in the region cooperate in a Regional Council. Lapland borders the region of North O ...

. His parents were Väinö Paasilinna (1902–1950, born Gullstén, changed his surname in 1934 after a family conflict) and Hilda-Maria Paasilinna (1908–1983, born Niva). The Paasilinnas had seven children, five sons and two daughters, including the writer

; the writer, MEP and TV personality

; the painter

Sirpa Paasilinna-Schlagenwarth Sirpa is a village development committee in Rolpa District in the Rapti Zone of north-eastern Nepal. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census The 1991 Nepal census was a widespread national census conducted by the Nepal Central Bureau of Statisti ...

; and the writer

.Kuusela 2008. Paasilinna studied at the General and Elementary School Line at the Lapland Folk Academy.MFW 2008, Biography.

Career

Paasilinna initially worked as a journalist at ''Nuoren Voiman Liitto'', ''Nuori Voima-lehti'' and various newspapers as writer and editor. At the weekly magazine ''

Apu APU or Apu may refer to: Film and television * ''The Apu Trilogy'', a series of three Bengali films, directed by Satyajit Ray, with the fictional character Apu Roy, comprising: ** ''Pather Panchali'' (''Song of the Little Road'') (1955), the first ...

'', he was an editor (1968–1970) and later a columnist (1975–1988). In 1975, at the age of 33, Paasilinna found journalism growing "more superficial and meaningless" and desired a change;Polojärvi 1999. that summer, he sold his boat to fund the writing of '' The Year of the Hare''. The book was an immediate success and from 1975 on Paasilinna became an independent writer able to support himself with his novels, signed to Finnish publisher WSOY since 1977. He still wrote journalism articles and was a columnist on Finnish radio. In 2000, Paasilinna was included in the 6th edition of literary critic Pekka Tarkka^{( fi)}'s dictionary ''Suomalaisia nykykirjailijoita'' ("Finnish Literary Authors", 1st ed. 1967). In 2002, for Paasilinna's 60th anniversary, journalist Eino Leino published a biography of Paasilinna called ''Lentojätkä. Arto Paasilinnan elämä"'' ("The Flight Dude"). The same year Paasilinna published his own autobiography called ''Yhdeksän unelmaa'' ("Nine Night's Dream"). , Paasilinna had published about 12 non-fiction books and 35 novels, with almost one novel each year from 1972 to 2009 (except 1973, 1978, 2002): as his publishers say, "The annual Paasilinna is as much an element of the Finnish autumn as falling birch leaves." He is "constantly being translated into new languages",FILI 2008. and 18WSOY 2009. of his books have been translated overall into at least 27WSOY 2009: Paasilinna is translated in 27 languages, being Albanian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Ersän, Estonian, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuan, Mokshan, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish. languages: the translations beyond neighboring Scandinavian countries include: 17 into Italian, 16 into German, :de:Arto Paasilinna 11 into French, 9 into Slovenian, 6 into Dutch, 5 into Spanish, 4 into Korean, and 2 into English, Ukrainian and Catalan. Described as "The brightest star in the Finnish translated-literature firmament"Petäjä 2006. by Finnish newspaper ''

Helsingin Sanomat ''Helsingin Sanomat'', abbreviated ''HS'' and colloquially known as , is the largest subscription newspaper in Finland and the Nordic countries, owned by Sanoma. Except after certain holidays, it is published daily. Its name derives from that of ...

'', his success is claimed as having been "instrumental in generating the current level of interest in books from Finland" by his publisher WSOY. Paasilinna's books reflect quite common Finnish life, usually from a

middle-aged In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

male perspective, and in rural Finland.Binder 2002. Fast-paced, light and humorous in style, many of these narratives can be described as

picaresque The picaresque novel (Spanish: ''picaresca'', from ''pícaro'', for " rogue" or "rascal") is a genre of prose fiction. It depicts the adventures of a roguish, but "appealing hero", usually of low social class, who lives by his wits in a corrup ...

adventure stories with often a satirical angle towards modern life. Certain of his stories have been described as modern fables, such as ''The Year of the Hare'', which sets an ex-journalist's quest for authentic life and values in the Finnish backwoods against the emptiness and meaninglessness of modern consumer society. Vatanen, the hero of this novel, takes an injured young hare with him on his quest, nursing the animal back to health, while his own dissatisfaction with his former urban lifestyle becomes ever more evident. His 1974 novel ''Paratiisisaaren Vangit'' appears as ''Prisonniers du Paradis''. This book is the humorous story of a UN charter that crashes on a deserted Pacific island. The passengers are lumberjacks and other forestry workers, midwives and nurses. As with ''The Year of the Hare'' (in French, ''Le lièvre de Vatanen''), the narrator is a journalist. The multinational castaways (Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian and English) give Paasilinna ample opportunity to poke fun at issues of language domination and national stereotypes. The castaways set up a

cashless society In a cashless society, financial transactions are not conducted with physical banknotes or coins, but instead with digital information (usually an electronic representation of money). Cashless societies have existed from the time when human soc ...

in which the only remuneration comes in the form of a cup of alcohol distilled in their jungle café in exchange for work for the collectivity. There is also a family planning clinic offering free

IUDs An intrauterine device (IUD), also known as intrauterine contraceptive device (IUCD or ICD) or coil, is a small, often T-shaped birth control device that is inserted into the uterus to prevent pregnancy. IUDs are one form of long-acting revers ...

. Soon, they find that they are not alone on the island and come up with a plan to get help. Two of his novels, ''Lentävä kirvesmies'' and ''Rovasti Huuskosen petomainen miespalvelija'' were adapted to

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

s by Hannu Lukkarinen.

Bibliography

In Finnish

Titles in quotes are indicative for untranslated books. ;Fiction his 36 novels are: *1972: ''Operaatio Finlandia'' ("Operation Finlandia") *1974: ''Paratiisisaaren vangit'' ("Prisoners of the Paradise Island") *1975: ''Jäniksen vuosi'' (tr. '' The Year of the Hare'', 1995) *1976: ''Onnellinen mies'' ("The Happy Man") *1977: ''Isoisää etsimässä'' ("Looking for Grandfather") *1979: ''Sotahevonen'' ("Warhorse") *1980: ''Herranen aika'' ("Goodness Gracious") *1981: ''Ulvova mylläri'' (tr. '' The Howling Miller'', 2007) *1982: ''Kultainen nousukas'' ("Golden Climber") *1983: ''Hirtettyjen kettujen metsä'' ("The Forest of the Hanged Foxes") *1984: ''Ukkosenjumalan poika'' ("The Son of the Thunder God") *1985: ''Parasjalkainen laivanvarustaja'' ("Bestfooted Shipwright") *1986: ''Vapahtaja Surunen'' ("Saviour Surunen") *1987: ''Koikkalainen kaukaa'' ("Koikkalainen from Far Away") *1988: ''Suloinen myrkynkeittäjä'' ("The Sweet Poison Cook") *1989: ''Auta armias'' ("Heaven Help Us") *1990: ''Hurmaava joukkoitsemurha'' ("A Charming Mass Suicide") *1991: ''

Elämä lyhyt, Rytkönen pitkä ''Elämä lyhyt, Rytkönen pitkä'' ("Life short, Rytkönen long") is a 1991 Finnish novel by Arto Paasilinna, While farcical throughout, from the title's twist on the original saying onwards, it has a somewhat elegiac mood, with a constant und ...

'' ("Life Short, Rytkönen Long") *1992: ''Maailman paras kylä'' ("The Best Village in the World") *1993: ''Aatami ja Eeva'' ("Adam and Eve") *1994: ''Volomari Volotisen ensimmäinen vaimo ynnä muuta vanhaa tavaraa'' ("Volomari Volotinen's First Wife and Assorted Other Old Items") *1995: ''Rovasti Huuskosen petomainen miespalvelija'' ("Reverend Huuskonen's Beastly Manservant") *1996: ''Lentävä kirvesmies'' ("The Flying Carpenter") *1997: ''Tuomiopäivän aurinko nousee'' ("Doomsday's Sun Rising") *1998: ''Hirttämättömien lurjusten yrttitarha'' ("The Herb Garden of the Unhanged Scoundrels") *1999: ''Hirnuva maailmanloppu'' ("Neighing End of the World") *2000: ''Ihmiskunnan loppulaukka'' ("Mankind's Final Trot") *2001: ''Kymmenen riivinrautaa'' ("The Ten Shrews") *2003: ''Liikemies Liljeroosin ilmalaivat'' ("Airships of Businessman Liljeroos") *2004: ''Tohelo suojelusenkeli'' ("Goofy Guardian Angel") *2005: ''Suomalainen kärsäkirja'' ("Finnish Snoutbook") *2006: ''Kylmät hermot, kuuma veri'' ("Cold Nerves, Hot Blood") *2007: ''Rietas rukousmylly'' ("Lewd Prayermill") *2008: ''Neitosten karkuretki'' ("Runaway Trip of the Maidens") *2009: ''Elävänä omissa hautajaisissa'' ("Alive at His Own Funeral") *2019: ''Laki vaatii vainajia'' ("The Law Requires Casualties") ;Non-fiction His other books include: * 1964: ''Karhunkaataja Ikä-Alpi'' ("Ikä-Alpi, Bear Hunter") - first book * 1971: ''Kansallinen vieraskirja, graffiitti eli vessakirjoituksia'' - toilet graffiti guide * 1984: ''Seitsemän saunahullua suomalaista'' (tr. ''Businessman's Guide to the Finnish Sauna'', 1984) * 1986: ''Kymmenen tuhatta vuotta'' (tr. ''Illustrated Episodes in a 10,000-year Odyssey: A Businessman's Guide to Finnish History'', 1986) * 1998: ''Hankien tarinoita'' (tr. ''Tales of the Snowfields: Finnish Skiing Through the Ages'', 1998) * 2002: ''Yhdeksän unelmaa'' ("Nine Night's Dreams") - autobiography * 2003: ''Sadan vuoden savotta'' ("One Hundred Years of Logging") - history of Finnish logging

In English

:MFW 2008, Translated work. ;Fiction * 1995: '' The Year of the Hare'' (''Jäniksen vuosi'', 1975) * 2007: '' The Howling Miller'' (''Ulvova mylläri'', 1981) (tr. Will Hobson from French) ;Non-fiction * 1984: ''Businessman's Guide to the Finnish Sauna'' (''Seitsemän saunahullua suomalaista'', 1984) * 1986: ''Illustrated Episodes in a 10,000-year Odyssey: A Businessman's Guide to Finnish History'' (''Kymmenen tuhatta vuotta'', 1986) * 1998: ''Tales of the Snowfields: Finnish Skiing Through the Ages'' (''Hankien tarinoita'', 1998)

Filmography

Many books have been adapted into movies (some dubbed into English), including: * 1977: ''

Jäniksen vuosi ''The Year of the Hare'' ( fi, Jäniksen vuosi) is a 1977 Finnish drama film directed by Risto Jarva, starring Antti Litja as a man who leaves his office job in Helsinki to live in the wilderness with a hare. The film is based on the 1975 book '' ...

'' / ''The Year of the Hare'' (after the 1975 novel) * 1982: '' Ulvova mylläri'' / ''The Howling Miller'' (after the 1981 novel) * 1986: '' Hirtettyjen kettujen metsä'' (after the 1983 novel) * 1996: ''

'' (after the 1991 novel) * 2000: '' Hurmaava joukkoitsemurha'' / ''A Charming Mass Suicide'' (after the 1990 novel) * 2002: '' Kymmenen riivinrautaa'' (after the 2001 novel) * 2006: ''

'' (French for "Vatanen's Hare", after the 1975 novel)

Personal life

In 2008 and 2009, while still living in

Espoo Espoo (, ; sv, Esbo) is a city and municipality in the region of Uusimaa in the Republic of Finland. It is located on the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland, bordering the cities of Helsinki, Vantaa, Kirkkonummi, Vihti and Nurmijärvi ...

, Paasilinna was featured in Finnish tabloids for his incoherent behaviour, including

reckless driving In United States law, reckless driving is a major moving traffic violation that generally consists in driving a vehicle with willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property. It is usually a more serious offense than careless ...

. In October 2009, Paasilinna was rushed to a hospital due to a

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

. In April 2010, he was moved to a

convalescent home A sanatorium (from Latin '' sānāre'' 'to heal, make healthy'), also sanitarium or sanitorium, are antiquated names for specialised hospitals, for the treatment of specific diseases, related ailments and convalescence. Sanatoriums are often ...

for recovery, and his son named as his treasurer. Paasilinna died on 15 October 2018 in a nursing home in Espoo.

Notes

References

* Binder, David (2002)
"A Skewed and Skewering Look at Finland"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', Arts section, query.nytimes.com, 6 July 2002 — Overview of Paasilinna's books. * FILI (2008)
"FILI FAQ - Everything you ever wanted to know about the translation and promotion of Finnish literature"

Finnish Literature Society The Finnish Literature Society ( fi, Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura ry or fi, SKS) was founded in 1831 to promote literature written in Finnish. Among its first publications was the ''Kalevala'', the Finnish national epic A national epic ...

: Finnish Literature Exchange, www.finlit.fi/fili/en, last-modified 2008, consulted in January 2009 * Kuusela, Kauko (2008)
"Paasilinna Family: Arto Paasilinna"
(

Google Translate Google Translate is a multilingual neural machine translation service developed by Google to translate text, documents and websites from one language into another. It offers a website interface, a mobile app for Android and iOS, and an API t ...

d from the Finnish of "Paasilinnojen Suku"), www.tervola.fi/KUUSELA, updated 28 September 2008, consulted in January 2009 — Genealogy and overview of the Paasilinna's. * MFW (2008), "Paasilinna, Arto
BiographyBibliographyTranslated work
, ''Modern Finnish Writers'', kirjailijat.kirjastot.fi, updated 13 November 2008, consulted in January 2009 * Petäjä, Jukka (2006)
"Finnish books in translation finding their way onto European shelves"
''

Helsingin Sanomat International Edition ''Helsingin Sanomat'', abbreviated ''HS'' and colloquially known as , is the largest subscription newspaper in Finland and the Nordic countries, owned by Sanoma. Except after certain holidays, it is published daily. Its name derives from that of ...

'', www.hs.fi/english, 7 January 2006 * Polojärvi, Tuula (1999)
"Arto Paasilinna: The Myth and the Original"
(

Archive.org The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

copy of 2006,

d from the Swedish "Arto Paasilinna: Myten och originalet"), ''Alba'' No. 7, www.alba.nu, 8 December 1999 — Interview of Paasilinna. * Virtual Finland (2000),,

Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland The Ministry for Foreign Affairs (MFA) is a ministry in the Finnish Government and is responsible for preparing and implementing the government's foreign policy. Organisation The ministry in 2017 has a total budget of 1.079 billion euros, of w ...

, virtual.finland.fi, January 2000 — Summary of Paasilinna's career. * WSOY (2009)
"Arto Paasilinna: Translations"
www.wsoy.fi, consulted in January 2009 — From his home publisher.

External links

Arto Paasilinnan Seura ry
(Arto Paasilinna Society)
Arto Paasilinna
at Fantastic Fiction (list of English translations: summary, covers, editions, ISBN) ; Reviews in English of untranslated books

at ''The Complete Review''
''Hurmaava joukkoitsemurha'' ("An Enchanting Mass Suicide", South-Korean edition)
at ''

The Dong-a Ilbo The ''Dong-A Ilbo'' (, literally ''East Asia Daily'') is a newspaper of record in Korea since 1920 with a daily circulation of more than 1.2 million and opinion leaders as its main readers. ''The Dong-A Ilbo'' is the parent company of Dong-A M ...

''
''Maailman paras kylä'' ("The Best Village in the World")
at ''The Complete Review''

at ''The Complete Review'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Paasilinna, Arto 1942 births 2018 deaths Finnish journalists Finnish-language writers Finnish male novelists Finnish male poets People from Kittilä 20th-century Finnish novelists 20th-century Finnish poets 20th-century male writers 21st-century Finnish novelists 21st-century Finnish poets 21st-century male writers Writers from Lapland (Finland) Deaths from cerebrovascular disease