More Very Finnish Problems Softback

Finland did not stop being baffling after the first book. More Very Finnish Problems is the sequel to 101 Very Finnish Problems and this is the new edition: the original problems, plus 29 new ones written after many more years of living in Finland and still not fully understanding it. The new problems are the ones you only learn by staying. The day every Finn's income is published in November and the whole country spends 24 hours being furious. The neighbour who complains about noise at one minute past ten. The housing company meeting that turns into a two hour argument about a hedge. The laundry room you have to book three weeks in advance. The flat that came with its own sauna, which you have used twice. And the April morning it reaches nine degrees and every terrace in the country is suddenly full. 101 problems in all, illustrated throughout, each a short, sharp essay, arranged by theme: rules, winter, silence, homes, sauna, language, alcohol, the cottage, Sweden (and now Estonia) and, inevitably, sisu, which turns out to mean nobody goes to the doctor. Affectionate, dry and accurate in the way only two decades of bemused observation can produce. If you live in Finland, are moving to Finland, have married into a family that treats silence as a full conversation or read the first book and wondered what happened next, this is the one. Free worldwide shipping, even during winter.