Sorry, but not sorry – I gave this a good fist, of over a third, but was finding the wacky magical realism of it all just wearying. Something about a woman who has to fish a pike from a pond every summer, or a curse she brought upon herself will do something, a murder charge, and no end of oddball Lappish sprite-like characters, one of whom has taken it upon himself to defend the pike. I can see it's been a big hit for many other readers, but this felt like the Coen Brothers rewriting a work by a Finnish del Toro and putting just too much individualistic whimsy in the way of whatever genre they thought they had a handle on.

In its opening paragraphs, Karila's novel—originally published in Finland in 2019 as Fishing for the Little Pike—establishes two things. This is a story that is deeply rooted in nature and the wilderness, and it's a story that is entirely unsentimental about both of those things. Nature, in this novel, is muggy and swampy, full of mud that sucks at your boots, branches that whip at your face, sticky sap and other gross substances, and most of all, insects that try to devour you the second you step foot outside. The setting is Vuopio, a remote, unremarkable village in East Lapland—the sort of place you'd describe as a wide space in the road, except there isn't much of a road—in high summer. Former local girl Elina has returned to her parents' farmhouse with a mission. Every year, Elina must venture to a nearby pond—really more of a puddle, made murky and muddy with summer evaporation—to fish for a pike. If she fails to retrieve the fish, an unspecified calamity will occur.
Unraveling the reasons for this quest, as well as the history of Elina's family, their tangled relationships with other townspeople who have been nursing decades-old grudges, secrets, and misunderstandings, and Elina's doomed romance with local firebrand Jousia, is the business of most of the novel. Along the way we learn that as much as it is rooted in nature, Summer Fishing in Lapland is also embedded in the fantastic. Along with curses and witches, the world of the novel's Lapland is overrun with fantasy creatures, some of whom are benign pests, and others deathly dangerous. All of Vuopio's inhabitants take the presence of supernatural in stride, or rather with resigned annoyance. They know not to make pets of frakus, who look cute and seem loyal, but will eventually turn on their masters. They're unfussed when a fishing trip on the river is interrupted by ghouls who try to drag them underwater. And on throng nights, when creatures even more fantastical and bizarre, with body parts cobbled together from different animals, parade in the streets and make a mess of the town, they lock their doors and draw the curtains. Elina's return threatens to overturn this delicate equilibrium, as she makes deals with ghosts and angers dangerous, malevolent creatures, all while attempting to allay a curse whose origins she won't explain.

But as the novel quickly makes clear, the balance of nature was upended long ago. The effects of climate change are felt throughout Summer Fishing in Lapland—Elina works for the forestry services, and observes that trees in the south are coming into bloom far earlier than they should; Vuopio's residents complain about increasingly hot summers. It eventually becomes clear that the fantastical is, similarly, being affected by the changing climate. Like the polar bears who have overrun Siberian towns following the erosion of their living space, the novel's fantasy creatures are responding to the destabilization and destruction of their habitats. Some of them have changed their behavior; others have gone extinct; all seem to be interacting with humans more regularly and viciously, not so much in a desire for revenge but as a natural consequence of being thrown together instead of keeping to separate spheres. The presence of a guard post at the Finn-Lapp border, advising travelers that they are venturing outside the protection of the law, suggests that this breakdown of the natural order is well-known, and that, like so many other effects of climate change, the official response has been to do nothing, and leave people (and creatures) to fend for themselves.

The story told in Summer Fishing in Lapland is lively and humorous, and tends towards the resolution of its various crises. Generations-old feuds are laid to rest, ancient accusations are revealed to have been false, Elina makes peace with Jousia and begins the process of lifting the curse she's been under. But in the background, the novel constantly reminds us that things are, in fact, unraveling. The various creatures Elina interacts with muse that humans will set the whole world on fire, will fly off into the stars while leaving the other denizens of Earth to live in the mess they've made. Or perhaps the whole world will become a swamp, everything beautiful and serene overrun with muck and mosquitoes. The result is an eco-fable that rejects any hint of tweeness or sentimentality. Our heroine may have staved off her personal doom, the novel's ending reminds us, but a greater calamity is still coming.

Summer Fishing In Lapland is the first novel by Finnish author, Juhani Karila. It is translated into English by Lola Rogers. For the last five years it’s been Elina Ylijaako’s summer ritual to travel back to her home village of Vuopio in eastern Lapland. It’s not a particularly popular place: “A horizon pierced by scruffy spruce, appalling desolation that keeps the people mute and the myths strong.”

She treks through the swamp where “A song thrush is cooing in the pines, and just ahead a black cloud of mosquitoes is rising from the swamp. Horseflies were living Swiss Army knives built by Satan himself, because they had spoons in their mouths, too, for ladling up the blood” and catches the sole remaining pike left in Pike Pond after the meltwaters recede. It’s important, and needs to be done by the 18th of June: her life depends on it. Just why is gradually revelaed.

Usually, she catches the pike on first cast, but this year, things go awry: there’s a knacky at Pike Pond, a malevolent water spirit that is set on preventing her catch. She tries a few tricks that don’t work, and her deadline is getting close, so she has to visit Dead Man’s Island to enlist some spiritual help.

On Elina’s trail is Detective Janatuinen, wanting to question her about a homicide that her city row house neighbour witnessed, and trace evidence confirmed. She’s not finding the Vuopio locals very helpful, though. Her police chief has told her that things are a bit different up there, to go with the flow.

So when the owner of The Vuopio Lure, the fishing tackle shop, insists on a favour in exchange for information, she reluctantly agrees. Taking a furry creature known as a raskel fishing in a rowboat, and encountering some rapacious river wretches is unexpected, but Janatuinen is resourceful.

When she heads off in her chief’s old Toyota to find Elina, though, the raskel won’t leave, and everyone knows they make a dangerous pet: “You know you got a raskel in your back seat?” is the constant refrain.

While Elina is making hard-to-keep bargains with mythical creatures to outwit other mythical creatures, Janatuinen is hearing a story from Elina’s Vuopio neighbour about the murder, by Young Lady Ylijaako, of the town’s former police chief.

Karila’s story features plenty of mythical creatures, witchcraft, spells and curses, as well as some very quirky, but appealing townspeople, romance, a bit of heartbreak and lots of laugh-out-loud humour, some of it quite dark. More from this author is definitely welcome. Clever, funny, a little bizarre and very entertaining.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Pushkin Press.

Beauiful subject, full of humour and tenderness! The characters are so lovable, and it experiments with narrative in really interestig and accessible ways.

Wow! What a read! This is a uniquely weird and fascinating book, filled with Finnish folklore - a modern day fairy-tale with a sprinkling of detective noir and nature diary. I loved it. Elina's world is vividly bought to life - an insular small-town community written about with humour and affection, along with landscape that almost becomes a character itself. Juhani Karila writes about nature with so much detail, adding texture and vividness to a place that most of us would be unfamiliar with. And yet there was an odd familiarity about it too - gossipy neighbours, bad break-ups, schoolyard bullying and small town intrigue. I think though that what I loved most was the way the author portrays a community where there's an almost mundane acceptance that supernatural and mythical creatures exist quite openly alongside humans - it reminded me of growing up hearing stories of Irish folklore and superstitions. A utterly magical book and big shout-out too for translator, Lola Rogers. .

this was okay, but read a little juvenile and i didn't feel connected to the characters or what happens to them at all. i can see other reader enjoying this a lot tho!

— thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the free digital ARC.

Mixing different genres such as folklore, fantasy, magic realism, adventure fiction and nature writing “Summer Fishing in Lapland” is an engaging take on the nature of letting go and coming to terms with oneself.

Through captivating descriptions of Lapland, its nature, customs and inhabitants, both real and magical, Juhani Karila creates a very tangible and addictive atmosphere. There are many folklore elements as well as those created by the author’s imagination intriguingly intertwined with the mundane. What is hilariously bizarre is not what is happening to the characters, but the extraordinary way they react to the events without even realizing it. After all, a lover’s promise can be stranger than any fairytale.

I guess this must be a delight to read in the original language. As far as I can tell it is masterfully translated into English, although it seems some names of the creatures were translated into English, I wished the translator had kept them in the original.

“Summer Fishing in Lapland” can be read in multiple ways and I believe this novel may appeal to a very specific niche audience, fans of Neil Gaiman or Hiromi Kawakami, but also to someone who would like to get out of their comfort and broaden their literary horizons.

Many thanks to Pushkin Press who kindly provided me with an advanced reading copy via NetGalley.

'Due to a string of regrettable occurrences, Elina Ylijaako had to catch a pike from a certain pond by June 18th every year.
Her life depended on it.'

This is a deliciously bonkers and quirky novel. It reminded me in tone and just-plain-weirdness of Antti Tuomainen's 2021 novel 'The Rabbit Factor', another Finnish writer who breaks every strict code of what a novel should be!

As Elina returns to Lapland to fulfil a task that she is bound to, for reasons which become apparent, her attempts to catch a pike are thwarted by various creatures from folklore, as well as a string of oddball locals. Oh, and she is being pursued by a policewoman who is trying to arrest her for murder. As the story develops you just get lost in the whole strangeness of it all, and find yourself willing everything to work out.

Entertaining, unique and charming all at the same time, definitely a must-read for those who like something a little different. 4.5 stars.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.)

A young woman from Lapland is coming home every summer because she needs to fish a pike out of a pond near her childhood home. What happens if she doesn't? Supernatural creatures of variable cuteness and lots of introspection, apparently.

I don't want to give up any more spoilers, so let's just jump straight to the conclusion: this book has been an absolute delight from start to finish. I'm not sure why so many reviewers call it a love story, unless they mean love a person has for their neighbours, their childhood home or possible an adorable little monster. Then sure, otherwise it's more of a magical realism book, but without any horror tropes so often associated with magical realism this days. This is your summer-reading-hygge-on-a-lake-in-northern-europe magical realism, and we all need more books like this in our lives.

There is a lovely bubbly sense to this translated Finnish novel, which to me suggests that the particular tone of the source novel might be quite difficult to render into English. The translator (Lola Rogers) has an initially difficult task in as much as this is a novel full of unexplained folklore roaming the unloved endless frozen swampland of Stupid Eastern Lapland (not to be confused with Exciting Western Lapland with its ski resorts, or Exotic Northern Lapland with the Saami). That gag opens the book from a pixieish omniscient narrator who we don't see again til the end but sets up a droll tone to what on paper looks like a grim bit of modern fantasy horror. It is anything but.

Elina Ylijaako has to return to her hometown once a year to catch a pike from a particular pond, or else something bad will happen. Unfortunately in this case she fails on her first attempt and things get increasingly complex. Following her is Policewoman Janatuinen, who believes she has committed a murder and has to brace the swamp to try and capture her. The kind of swamp that there is a border guard for, who tells you that all of your insurance will default if you travel into those mosquito-infested lands (the commitment to detail, particularly about mosquitos is a central core of the tone of this book). For Elina the supernatural is every day, for Janatuninen, not so much - though she is in a Nordic mystery novel and so stoicism and slow can-do attitude are boiled into her character. And we slowly unravel why Elina must catch the pike, if she committed the murder, and if there is anyone sane in the town.

As mentioned above this totally could have been told as supernatural horror, and in many ways it is a sliver away from DC's Swamp Thing (ut basically has a character that is Swamp Thing in it). But the droll humour and increasingly bizarre scenarios bounce against our two stoical leads it conjures up a picture of these badlands, and the kind of folk magic and supernatural that springs up there (including one incessant creature which is possibly the banalest creature ever - which takes a bit of clever construction). Summer Fishing In Lapland is quick but involving read, Karila has the right sense of tone and specificity to make this feel universal whilst talking about swamp creatures call The Knacky. Call it magical realism if you want, though I'd just call it droll but compelling fantasy horror.

This is such a brilliant, weird little thing! I’m delighted that it pushes against genre borders, and that it stubbornly does its own thing. Don’t go in expecting a typical fantasy experience, or a typical literary one: this has a vibe of its own, which I found very charming. The vibes of countryside in Finland are immaculate, make me miss the place so much.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy of the book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this engaging mashup of folklore and magical realism. I felt like I was transported to northern Scandinavia. This is the perfect way to escape in your imagination and cool off on a hot summer day. I'll be recommending this book in the 14 July episode of my podcast 'The Library of Lost Time.'

Thanks to Pushkin Press and NetGalley for this advanced copy!

I loved this book! It follows the story of Elina who has to fish for a magical pike every year to stay alive, surrounded by the threats of lapland's magic and curses. The supporting characters are lovable and the magical folklore weaving through the storyline is glorious.
To me, this was classic Pushkin Press - brilliantly written, whimsical, absolutely bonkers at some parts and compelling. Would recommend!

If you are looking for something quirky to read then I recommend "Summer Fishing in Lapland" by Juhani Karila. Definitely refreshingly alternative, it gives you an insight into life into Lapland - lots of fish, mythical creatures and a curse that needs to be broken!

I thoroughly enjoyed this whimsical YA and adult fantasy/folklore/fairytale story. A story of summer fishing in Lapland, true. But not entirely, and so much more! Suspend a bit of belief, go with the flow and all will be explained in the end. Thank you to Pushkin Press and NetGalley for the ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Summer Fishing in Lapland is a beautifully translated magical story.

Quite a tricky one to review.
At times I was loving the quirkiness of the story, and then a page or two later, I'd be wondering what on earth was going on.
The writing was enjoyable, and when I got swept up in the story, it was great.
These were the times when I had a decent chunk of time to devote to the story.

It's definitely different!