Little Siberia

By: Antti Tuomainen

Narrated by: Ville Leppanen, Jonathan Keeble

Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

The arrival of a meteorite in a small Finnish town causes chaos and crime in this poignant, chilling and hilarious new thriller from the King of Helsinki Noir.

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. With euro signs lighting up the eyes of the locals, the unexpected treasure is temporarily placed in a neighbourhood museum, under the watchful eye of a priest named Joel.   

But Joel has a lot more on his mind than simply protecting the riches that have apparently rained down from heaven. His wife has just revealed that she is pregnant. Unfortunately Joel has strong reason to think the baby isn’t his. As Joel tries to fend off repeated and bungled attempts to steal the meteorite, he must also come to terms with his own situation and discover who the father of the baby really is.   

Transporting the listener to the culture, landscape and mores of northern Finland, Little Siberia is both a crime novel and a hilarious, blacker-than-black comedy about faith and disbelief, love and death, and what to do when bolts from the blue - both literal and figurative - turn your life upside down.

©2019 Antti Tuomainen (P)2019 Audible, Ltd

tepid, no theme

Simple, like something a high schooler would write. nothing unique. Most frustrating is that it's a thriller that offers no clues, so the conclusions may as well be random. Repeats details throughout instead of moving story forward. Found myself rolling my eyes a few times and laughing at 'serious' parts.
But its an easy listen if you just need something on in the background or to fall asleep.

Quirky black humour

I had read the “man who died “ and enjoyed a mystery story in a different style, different landscape and cultural setting. Little Siberia did not disappoint.

A fan of Antti Tuomainen’s books, but I think I prefer to read rather than listen

This is quite well-performed - I love the narrator’s voice, but I think the comic timing of the author’s writing is hard to get right, in terms of emphasis and pace, and I think the reader misses the target quite frequently in this recording.

Just a theory, so take with a grain of salt: I think the understated humour that I love when reading this author’s work (from the page) lowers the stakes and takes the edge off the peril the characters are in, so it’s possible to care a little less about what happens to them. When I’m reading books like this, they can be a real tonic and an antidote to stress, but when I’m having them read to me, my attention drifts and they kind of wash over me. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but just not what I was looking for at the time I listened to this. I was looking for something more gripping - but as I say, that could be me, rather than the book.

Long story short, I plan to read more Antti Tuomainen (loved The Rabbit Factor and The Moose Paradox), but as books rather than audiobooks.

Imaginative and entertaining

Another great book from Antti. The usual unexpected twists and turns along the way. Very well narrated