The protagonist of Harri Nykänen's
Nights of Awe is named Ariel Kafka, and he's one of two Jewish police officers in Helsinki.
Now, Finland's entire Jewish population is no bigger than a couple of good-sized Long Island bar-mitzvahs, so it's no shock that Jews would be somewhat exotic figures there. Nykänen has Kafka react with head-shaking amusement to well-meaning questions about Jews, and the deadpan humor is of a piece with what Nykänen did so well in
Raid and the Blackest Sheep.
Kafka's Jewish identity figures also in the crimes that drive this story, a series of killings of Arabs that eventually involves drugs, trains, cars, Israeli diplomats, the Mossad intelligence service, and friends and others from Kafka's own past. To say too much more would risk spoilers, except that things, as in all good mysteries, are not what they seem, even when you think you've figured out what's what and who's who.
The novel's title refers to the Jewish high holidays, the Days of Awe, when observant Jews repent of their sins. Nykänen presumably intends moral weight, but a character named Kafka needs no help from the calendar to get introspective. The story could have been set any time in the year.
***
The book was smoothly translated into English by Kristian London, an American who lives in Helsinki. The fluency of the translation is especially noticeable in the novel's first half, which consists largely of routine police detail and dialogue, where the prose, and not the action, must hold readers' attention.
© Peter Rozovsky 2012Labels: Bitter Lemon Press, Finland, Finland crime fiction, Harri Nykänen, Kristian London, Nordic crime, Nordic crime fiction, translation, translators
My review of Harri Nykänen's novel Nights of Awe appears in Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer under the headline "A Finnish thriller stars a Jewish cop."
