“The Last Few Meters to the Cemetery” by Antti Tuomainen

I feel that is Antti Tuomainens novel “The last few meters to the cemetery” good, easily digestible entertainment, but no more. Some critics conclude from the basic situation of near-death, the memento mori to the moribund in mind, a philosophical superstructure. I think that over-interpreted. Not everyone macabre joke must be associated with an existential realization not every thoughtful sentence is equal to an excursion into the transcendental.

Three cheers for the pine scent ride Ling! The healthy, nutrient-rich fungus grows and easily thrives in the Finnish woods.

In Japanese, however, not so good. Here, the Japanese is willing (called it Matsutake) for this plant to give his last shirt – concretely. No less than a thousand euros for kilo.

What could be better for an ambitious, largely independent young Finns as Jaakko Mikael Kaunismaa, 30, to grow as a pine scent ride Linge to export to the distant gourmets and become rich? With his wife, Taina he grabs the opportunity with both hands, pulling away from Helsinki to Hamina and founded as a start-up.

Seven years later, buzzing the shop, and he should be allowed to call himself a happy man.

But Jaakko is not the only ambitious, largely independent young Finn. There would, for example, Asko (this has been and done), Juhana (once best scorer in Päsaball, the Finnish baseball) and Juhani (the eternal Heringsmief his mother disliked such that it took them around the corner). These are three, lured by plump Japanese money bags entered the booming mushroom trade, but with more robust methods as Jaakko and Taina.

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The nasty competition is not, of course Jaakko single problem. Because he makes to create a series of physical symptoms for a while, he asked for the doctor a couple of pills – and was confronted with the devastating diagnosis that he did not live long. For some time it someone has insidious toxins have administered

Understandably, Jaakko eternal to the premature sealing his fate insignificance entirely unprepared. “Death comes so once in a lifetime”. but as an ordinary man, he knows how to organize a kind of “to-do” lists. Clear: To whom it owes the regular poison gifts, nor that he must find out before he bites the dust. And the company he wants to establish future-proof. So Jaakko travels with his fatal diagnosis home to the next steps, “the last few meters to the cemetery” to discuss with his favorite Taina, as it has been proven between them.

But instead of consolation, advice and help from trouble awaits the doomed the next shock. Because he finds Taina busy with the only employees of the joint company with unique two-filled activities in the cozy home. thrown between disappointment and anger back and forth, Jaakko running emotions into space – as well as any spontaneously conceived to-do list. How to deal with the unfaithful partner, including Lover who quite obviously envisaged a common future without him? Should he resort to the iron bar on the wall? Or the two to the police? Both ideas convince not right. And the intention to growing mushrooms on safe ground, does not lose its sense if after the death of the brave, the traitor, with her binoculars and benefit the dubious competitors from the end perhaps.

Jaakko and his dilemma unlike Antti Tuomainens crime was “The last few meters to the cemetery” and me a little perplexed. (At least I had as opposed to the poor not deadline fear.) Of course, one wonders just curious how the fungus dealer, who wants him to the fur, and the author plays nicely with our expectations and clichés. Nevertheless, the plot is quite knit simple and manageable. Amusing, but his characters are not stunningly original drawn. The three brainless muscle men of the mushroom growers competition ( “type wide-as-a-barn”) expected to have no chance against our obese antiheroes Jaakko with his “weakness for fat donuts.” So he comes Lusch otherwise dahergetrabt, it grows in two speed chases beyond itself and proves to be cold-nosed victor.

As a plus point of the novel hit the inventive formulations and the predominantly whimsical atmosphere impact. Antti Tuomainens sober up bone dry style fits very well with the character of his unsentimental narrator who keeps his pragmatic sense of humor despite apocalyptic mood ( “I just need to stay alive. Until I die.”). Anyone who has a sense of reasoning will have to like the following his joy: “The wind seems to have forgotten that his job is to blow.” “People come, people go Almost everyone who went, was of the opinion that it is done at the wrong time.”

“The road is not talkative, not told prolix, not spin around you and does not move in the wrong direction, does not senseless, faulty mental leaps … You never wrong is reliable, chronological, logical Consequently, from point A to B… . No matter how painful may be the journey. ” That all this also works in German, speaks for the translator, Niina and Jan Costin Wagner, for units located in Finland Thriller [Read my review of Jan Costin Wagner here:” self author Sakari learns to walk through walls “on Books Reviews”.