Birdbrain

by Johanna Sinisalo

Translated from the original Finnish by David Hackston

From the author of Not Before Sundown, this novel is a skilful portrait of the unquenchable desire of Westerners for the pure and the primitive. A young Finnish couple go on the hiking trip of a lifetime in Australasia with Heart of Darkness as reading material. The trip gradually turns into a tortuous thriller with belongings disappearing and, even more mysteriously, reappearing. The travellers come to be at the mercy of untamed nature. Birdbrain reveals the dark side of the explorer’s desire: the insatiable need to control, to invade and leave one’s mark on the landscape. But what happens when nature starts to fight back?

(From Publisher).

Johanna Sinisalo studied comparative literature and drama, amongst other subjects, at the University of Tampere. Professionally she worked in the advertising business, rising to the level of marketing designer.
An important figure in the Finnish science fiction scene in the late 1980s and early '90s (winning a rare back-to-back collection of Atorox prizes for short fiction in the genre), she was also the first to make a breakthrough by bursting the genre barriers.
Sinisalo was awarded the Finlandia Prize for literature in 2000 for her first novel, Ennen päivänlaskua ei voi (translated as Not before Sundown in 2003 and again as Troll - A Love Story in 2004 for the American market

The mystical tale set in Australasia is a skilful portrait of the unquenchable desire of Westerners for the pure and the primitive, revealing the dark side of the explorer's desire - the need to control, to invade, and to leave one's mark on the landscape. This time, however, nature strikes back.