The last Finnish novel I read was Philip Teir’s The Winter War, a witty, engrossing novel about love, marriage and divorce. Jussi Valtonen’s They Know Not What They Do encompasses much more than that but it begins with the marriage between Joe, an American neuroscientist, and Alina, the Finnish woman he meets at a conference with whom he falls in love and has a child, a relationship which lasts just a few years. Two decades later it seems that Joe may be about to pay the price of turning his back on his son and returning to the States.
Joe never quite comes to understand the Finnish, seeing them as insular and self-contained in contrast to his American colleagues. With Alina caught up in caring for Samuel, no longer sharing the details of the work with which they were both involved, their marriage begins to unravel. Fast forward twenty years and Joe is settled in Baltimore, running a university research project and living in the suburbs with his second wife and two daughters, one of whom has become involved with a shady marketing company. When Joe becomes the target of animal rights activists, the family’s carefully choreographed routines breakdown. Joe is jolted by a phone call from Alina telling him that Samuel is in the States. Given Samuel’s part in bringing down a powerful firm involved in animal testing, it seems all too likely that he’s one of those targeting Joe. Bodyguards are engaged along with the services of a techie whose job is to root out the smallest clue lurking in the interstices of the internet. This long complex novel follows Joe, Alina and Samuel, ending unexpectedly one hot Baltimore night
Valtonen begins his novel in 1994 when Joe and Alina first get together, shifting his perspective from one to the other as he unfolds each side of the story. The novel addresses a multitude of themes wrapped up in a carefully plotted story with a thread of suspense running through it. The way in which technology has invaded our lives is particularly sharply portrayed, chillingly extrapolated in the shape of the iAm, the insidious gadget Joe’s teenage daughter has been given by a marketing company masquerading as a campaign for children’s welfare. The organisations whose tentacles are deeply embedded in so many aspects of our lives are unsettlingly well drawn – step forward Google – and the plotting is cleverly executed. It wasn’t an unalloyed joy for me, however. The scope is a little too ambitious – I would have preferred it if Valtonen had concentrated more on the technology theme – and it’s over long. That said, it’s a novel that offers its readers a good deal to think about not least what sort of trail they’re leaving on the web.
Looks like this has been marketed as a thriller — did it strike you as such? I think I might enjoy the themes of an American abroad and animal research/rights (and Baltimore is 30 miles from where I grew up), but your warning about it being overlong gives me pause.
It does have elements of a thriller and a very satisfying twist at the end but its not a book that has you on the edge of your seat. Given it’s nearly 500 pages long, I think it would have benefited from a little pruning.
I was thinking that the middle figure on the cover looks a fair bit like Tom Cruise.
Ha! I see what you mean although I wouldn’t have noticed if you hadn’t mentioned it.
Interesting review. Sounds like a suspenseful book with a complex story that was possibly difficult to capture.
I think the author was trying to do too much although it was a huge bestseller in Finland so clearly went down well there.
Thank you for this post, Susan. ‘Digital footprints’ has become the hot themes. As much as the Internet feels open, it is beginning to feel a bit strange too these days. I have never read a Finnish novel. This looks like a start for me. Thank you.
You’re welcome, Deepika. I’m not sure how much of a digital footprint we’re all aware we’re leaving!
Sounds like an interesting novel, Susan, but I 100% agree with you on the too broad scope.
It did feel as if he was trying to cram too much in to one novel which in some ways makes it all the more admirable that the suspense was maintained.
I feel exactly like that with David Mitchell I’m afraid.
Yes, I’d agree with that. I loved his first novel, Ghostwritten, but haven’t really got on with anything he’s written since.