Arto Paasilinna

Arto Tapio Paasilinna was born on April 20, 1942, in Kittilä, Finnish Lapland. Working as a lumberjack, agricultural laborer, and journalist in Rovaniemi and Helsinki, he turned to fiction in the early 1970s.

In 1975, Paasilinna published his international bestseller Jäniksen vuosi (The Year of the Hare), recounting how disillusioned journalist Kaarlo Vatanen rescues an injured leveret on a country road, abandons his corporate job and marriage, and roams the Finnish wilderness in pursuit of genuine freedom. Paasilinna wrote over thirty-five whimsical, satirical novels poking fun at bureaucracy and modern existential angst, earning huge followings in France, Germany, and across Europe.