Hunting for the Small Pike

“Hunting for the Small Pike” is a touching love story and intricate fantasy at the same time. It is a novel that immerses the reader in the unique folklore of Lapland and modern Finnish life. Every year, Elina Juliaakko returns to her native village in Eastern Lapland to catch a pike in a small forest lake. This fish holds a secret that determines Elina's life. But this time, a water spirit intervenes in the pike hunt, and soon other people and ancient beings join the confrontation: peat bucks, wobblies, frowners, striped legs, korgorushis, and cluckers. Fishing turns into a desperate adventure. This is a parable novel, a fairytale novel about great love, accidental betrayal, overcoming, and forgiving oneself. Rich in precise descriptions of northern nature, the novel transports the reader to some prehistoric world where myth is indistinguishable from reality, and man and nature are a whole unity.