@brittarnhild
On my list of books to read I have been thinking of one of Arto Paasilinna from Finland. His funny, easy way of writing is such a joy to read, when you are in that mood. But then I visited a bookstore here in Trondheim and started to talk with one of the sellers. I told him about my project, he got quite enthusiastic and together we started to search the shelves for literature from around the world. Again I discovered that it is hard to find books from outside Norway and/or Great Britain/USA. But suddenly the young man stopped; "Here I have a book for you!" He got my curiosity of course, and when I took the bus home I had Datura in my purse.
Leena Krohn is one of Finland´s most famous aothors, with a wide written range of genres and themes. In Datura we meet a young woman, the narrator, who works for a magazine which writes about paranormal news. The narrator is sceptical to all paranormal, but as she starts to eat datura seeds, a few with her tea every day, because thay are good for asthma, her mind slowly gets delirious, and paranormal incidents seem to happen to her more and more. For the narrator, and also for the reader, it is impossible to separate what is real and what is only going on in her mind.
In one of the reviews I have read, Peter Bebergal in The New Yorker, Bebergal has asked Leena Krohn a few questions and Krohn says: "Absolute reality is and always will be unknowable to us. Dream images and delusions throw up information, often metaphorical or allegorical. In my books, I try to use every channel of information possible, keeping in mind that information is not what is most important in literature, meaning is.
Another reviewer says: "Shadows of Kafka and Strindberg...a contemporary masterwork"
I tend to agree.
The photos is not a dry datura but an unnamed flower I shot in a Greenwich park a couple of years ago.
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