The first Finnish crime fiction novel to receive the Petrona Award is Little Siberia, a highly original, dark and funny story by Antti Tuomainen.
A man with dark thoughts on his mind is racing along the remote snowy roads of Hurmevaara in Finland, when there is flash in the sky and something crashes into the car. That something turns about to be a highly valuable meteorite. Said to be worth 1 million euros, it immediately captures the interest of the locals as well as some Russian visitors. To protect it from greedy hands, the meteorite is temporarily placed in a neighbourhood museum, to be watched by Joel Huhta, the local pastor. But Joel has a lot more on his mind than simply protecting the meteorite from thieves. His wife has just revealed that she is pregnant, but Joel has strong reason to think the baby isn’t his. At the same time as Joel tries to fend off repeated attempts to steal the meteorite, he must also try to find out who the father of the baby really is. And his two problems seem to be somehow connected.
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