Birdbrain

By Johanna Sinisalo and David Hackston

'A sense of lurking horror that will leave you troubled for weeks' - Sam Jordison, Guardian Book of the Year 2010. From the author of Not Before Sundown, this novel is a skilful portrait of the unquenchable desire of Westerners for the pure and the primitive. A young Finnish couple go on the hiking trip of a lifetime in Australasia with Heart of Darkness as reading material. The trip gradually turns into a tortuous thriller with belongings disappearing and, even more mysteriously, reappearing. The travellers come to be at the mercy of untamed nature. Birdbrain reveals the dark side of the explorer's desire: the insatiable need to control, to invade and leave one's mark on the landscape. But what happens when nature starts to fight back?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Peter Owen Publishers
• Release date: Sep 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9780720613827

Reviews for Birdbrain

[arubabookwoman · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Heidi and Jyrki are a Finnish couple hiking in Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand. They are lovers, but don't actually know each other very well. Jyrki is a strong outdoorsman and hiker, Heidi, not so much--she's just trying to maintain credibility with Jyrki. The story is told is alternating sections from Heidi's point of view and Jyrki's point of view.While the story of Heidi and Jyrki is a good-enough story, the real star of this book are the descriptions of the landscape and hiking. For those who know the area, Heidi and Jyrki hiked the South Coast Track in Tasmania, the Queen Charlotte Track in New Zealand, the Kepler Track in New Zealand, and Grampian's National Park, Hall's Gap in Australia. The internal portraits of Heidi and Jyrki as they challenge the landscape and elements seem absolutely authentic. Along the way, we also learn a lot about the kea, a mountain parrot living on the South Island of New Zealand.While the gorgeous and remote setting of this novel frequently is at the forefront, this book is in no way just a travelogue or adventure story. We are instead experiencing Jyrki and Heidi's experiences, their on-going internal monologues, and the changes they undergo. The ending is satisfactorily ambiguous.