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Translated by David Hackston.
Published in paperback 14th April 2022 by Orenda Books.
From the cover of the book:
Just one spreadsheet away from chaos…
What makes life perfect? Insurance mathematician Henri Koskinen knows the answer because he calculates everything down to the very last decimal.
And then, for the first time, Henri is faced with the incalculable. After suddenly losing his job, Henri inherits an adventure park from his brother – its peculiar employees and troubling financial problems included. The worst of the financial issues appear to originate from big loans taken from criminal quarters … and some dangerous men are very keen to get their money back.
But what Henri really can’t compute is love. In the adventure park, Henri crosses paths with Laura, an artist with a chequered past, and a joie de vivre and erratic lifestyle that bewilders him. As the criminals go to extreme lengths to collect their debts and as Henri's relationship with Laura deepens, he finds himself faced with situations and emotions that simply cannot be pinned down on his spreadsheets…
Warmly funny, rich with quirky characters and absurd situations, The Rabbit Factor is a triumph of a dark thriller, its tension matched only by its ability to make us rejoice in the beauty and random nature of life.
A quirky, tense and warmly funny thriller from award-winning Finnish author Antti Tuomainen.
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Henri Koskinen lives a sedate, ordered life as an insurance actuary in Helsinki, Finland. His religion is mathematics and every decision he makes is based on his ability to calculate the probability of all things down the nth degree. His only friend is his cat Schopenhauer, and he is content to leave things that way - close relationships can be highly unpredictable, something he knows only too well from his chaotic childhood.
But Henri's calm is shattered by a double whammy of events that he does not see coming, despite his love of predicting all outcomes. First off, he is forced to leave the job he loves; and then his estranged brother dies, bequeathing him an adventure park called YouMeFun. Such a venture sounds anything but fun to Henri, but his brother's parting words beg him to look after the park and he feels he can hardly refuse such a request... he is at a bit of a loose end after all.
The park proves to be a revelation to Henri in many ways. especially since its finances are a mess, and the employees are an odd mix of colourful characters. He does not have a clue where to start sorting out all the issues that fall to him to solve. His problems are made worse when he discovers that his brother has borrowed money from some very unsavoury criminal types, who are willing to use extreme violence to ensure their loan is paid back in double quick time.
As Henri attempts to use his actuarial skills (and the occasional help of a very large plastic rabbit) to get out of the financial disaster that threatens to be very bad for his health, he finds himself becoming fond of both the park, and the rag-tag assortment of staff that are now his responsibility - in particular, the captivating artist Laura, who has an eventful past. Henri is learning to tackle the unexpected, including the unpredictability of falling in love...
The Rabbit Factor is a quirky, heart-warming gem of an unconventional crossover between crime and love story. The bones of the tale lie in underdog Henri's fight against some heavyweight bad guys who wish to use him for their own ends, and Tuomainen builds on this classic crime plot to make something truly original that is full of dark humour, pathos, and highly entertaining twists and turns.
The setting of an adventure park is cleverly imagined, and such a vivid backdrop for the story - it's really not the usual environment for the kind of crime, or romance, themes that unfurl here, which makes it all the more enchanting. You can feel yourself there among the outlandish attractions, with the sticky-fingered, rampaging children, and this makes for a curiously surreal backdrop that is perfect for the sort of left-of-field action that springs from Tuomainen's imagination.
Henri is not your usual knight in shining armour either - he begins the story as a socially awkward loner, happy in his routine and the solo company of his cat Schopenhauer (who is oh so accurately written), but his life is thrown into chaos that drags him completely out of his comfort zone and proves to be the absolute making of him. I thoroughly enjoyed how his character develops over the course of the story, as Toumainen has him getting creative with the skills (and objects) he has at hand to get one (or two... or three) over on the ruthless gangsters who are out to get him. Intriguingly, Henri has to dig deep to find his own cold-blooded core of steel to play them at their own game, but it is his emerging warm and fuzzy side that really makes this for me. Henri opens himself up to the spontaneous, the incalculable, the unforeseen parts of the human experience, and most touchingly, he falls in love - but he also comes to recognise the benefits of community and connection with all the members of the YouMeFun family.
I absolutely loved this book. It's witty and darkly comic, provoking many laugh out loud moments, but it touches your heart too, tying everything up in a big feel-good bow that makes it eminently satisfying. I tip my hat to the translator David Hackston for keeping the pace and timing going so well from start to finish, as this is very hard to do in a comic caper with such delicate threads of emotional intensity. Good job!
I am thrilled to discover that this the first part in a new trilogy (Tuomainen's first book series), because I really need more of this sort of writing in my life. This book is also set to be a major motion picture with Steve Carell in the starting role, which I will be keeping my eyes well and truly peeled for.
The Rabbit Factor is available to buy now in multiple formats.
Thank you to Orenda Books for sending me an ecopy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Random Things Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the author:
With a piercing and evocative style, Tuomainen was one of the first to challenge the Scandinavian crime genre formula, and his poignant, dark and hilarious The Man Who Died became an international bestseller, shortlisting for the Petrona and Last Laugh Awards. Palm Beach Finland was an immense success, with Marcel Berlins (The Times) calling Tuomainen 'the funniest writer in Europe'. Little Siberia (2020), was shortlisted for the CWA International Dagger, the Amazon Publishing/Capital Crime Awards and the CrimeFest Last Laugh Award, and won the Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year. The Rabbit Factor (2021), the first book in Antti's first ever series, is in production by Amazon Studios with Steve Carell starring. The Moose Paradox, book two in the series is out in 2022.
About the translator:
About the translator:
David Hackston is a British Translator of Finnish and Swedish literature and drama. Notable publications include The Dedalus Book of Finnish Fantasy, Maria Peura’s coming-of-age novel At the Edge of Light, Johanna Sinisalo’s eco-thriller Birdbrain, two crime novels by Matti Joensuu, and Kati Hiekkapelto’s Anna Fekete series (which currently includes The Hummingbird, The Defenceless and The Exiled, all published by Orenda Books). He also translates Antti Tuomainen’s stories. In 2007 he was awarded the Finnish State Prize for Translation. David is also a professional countertenor and a founding member of the English Vocal Consort of Helsinki.
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