A few years back I had read Jääskeläinen’s The Rabbit Back Literature Society. That novel had been compared to “Twin Peaks meeting the Brothers Grimm” and was a dark and cryptic work which hovered rather awkwardly between outright supernatural fiction and magical realism. I had found this ‘ambivalence’ ultimately disappointing, but the novel was intriguing enough to make me want to sample the author’s latest offering, recently translated into English by Lola Rogers.

In its initial chapters, this novel seemed quite different from its predecessor, apart from its small-town setting and “bookish” background. Indeed, it starts off as a gentle, if quirky, tale of mid-life romance. Olli Suominen, the head of a publishing company based in Jyväskylä, is going through a minor crisis. Book sales are not what they used to be and, as far as family-life is concerned, he seems to be growing distant from his wife and young son. Through Facebook, he gets in touch with Greta Kara, an old flame who has since become the bestselling author of an influential self-help guide to “living a cinematic life”. He somehow convinces her to issue her next book – a ‘magical’ travel book about Jyväskylä – through his publishing house. This promises to boost Olli’s business – and amorous - prospects.

But Olli’s Facebook exchanges with Greta also rekindle memories of another group of childhood acquantainces – the three Blomroos siblings and their cousin Karri. Together with Timi, Olli’s dog, they formed a Finnish equivalent of the Famous Five. In true Enid Blyton fashion, they spent their summer holidays together, shared long, glorious, sunny days on riverside picnics and solved mysteries along the way. Typically, they also explored secret passages. And here things start to get weird, because unlike the relatively workaday secret passages in Blyton’s novels, the Toulura tunnels seem to warp reality and cause time to go completely off-kilter. Unsurprisingly, Olli’s memories of the secret passages are vague and confused, but we eventually learn that they were the theatre for shocking happenings shared by Greta and the Tourula Five.

Whether you will enjoy the novel from this point forward will depend on how crazy you like your fiction to be. In my case, I generally prefer novels which follow an internal logic, however strange their premise might be. And to be honest, it was sometimes difficult to understand where this book was going . But it still hooked me to the last chapter. Or chapters, given that the novel rather puzzlingly presents us with an alternative ending – probably a nod to “alternate movie endings” which are sometimes available on DVDs of certain movies.

So, how should we interpret Secret Passages? Should we take it at face value as a work of supernatural fiction? Or is this actually realist fiction, using elements of fantasy to give us a glimpse of the workings of Olli’s mind? Is the book a satire on modern life which, thanks to social media, seems to be all about living a “cinematic life” worth sharing with the world at large? Or is this an adult parody of Enid Blyton mysteries, particularly the underlying gender politics simmering below their surface? Perhaps it’s all of this, but it makes for a wild and crazy ride.

There was a point where I found myself wondering why I was still reading this book but luckily I stuck with it. The story got better about a third of the way in and then I was fully sucked into the narrative.

Overall this was a crazy read. Yes the twist was painfully obvious but the story was intriguing. A bit dated now though because Facebook is no longer a new thing.

I do wonder if some of the narrative was lost in translation. Since I can't read Finnish I will never know.

Thank you Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
I first wanted to read this book because of the colorful cover.
Then I read the first sentence:

Publisher Olli Suominen spent the rainy days if autumn buying umbrellas and forgetting them all around Jyvaskyla. He also accidentally joined a film club.

and was ready to plunge in as soon as possible.

I liked it a lot, even though it's not my usual kind of book.

Spending time between the pages of this story was like living through a dark and wet winter in Finland.