Arto Paasilinna
The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna, an international bestseller, is the story of a middle-aged man who drops out of civilization to romp through rural Finland accompanied by a hare.
Vitanen, a journalist, is on assignment with a photographer. They are traveling down a rural road in Finland when a hare jumps across the street. The photographer slams on the car breaks but it’s too late. The hare is wounded and hobbles in to the woods. Vitanen goes looking for it. He finds the injured hare, cradles it in his arms, looks around the forest, and decides he does not want to return to his unfulfilling life in Helsinki. He walks deeper into the forest. His adventures begin, unfolding in a meandering narrative, episodic in nature.
Spending a year roaming through the rural areas of Finland, Vitanen bounces from one encounter to the next, from one temporary job to the next. All the while, he keeps traveling, mostly on foot. Many of the people he meets befriend him and his hare. They offer him food, shelter, and temporary employment. They behave as if it is the most natural thing in the world to meet a man who has dropped out of society, choosing to traipse around Finland with a hare as his best friend. Many of the adventures land Vitanen in absurd situations. Some of his encounters are designed to poke fun at bureaucracy while others show the hypocrisy of those in positions of authority. Throughout all this, Vitanen emerges as remarkably resilient and adaptable. He is kind, generous, and compassionate. Above all, he is devoted to the well-being of his hare.
Vitanen’s child-like innocence and his meandering through the forests of Finland sets up a contrast between the life-enhancing freedom of choosing one’s own path in life or conforming to society’s life-denying, restrictive precepts. This quirky novel with its quirky protagonist is a refreshing celebration of personal freedom, an unstructured life style, a refusal to submit societal norms, and a connection with nature in all its beauty.