I wasn’t convinced by the characters or the plot.

A meteorite falls to Earth in the small fictional town of Hurmevaara in Finland. Believing it to be valuable, the residents guard it in the museum until it is able to be transported away for analysis. Joel, the local pastor is on guard duty, and an attempt is made to steal the meteorite. Joel is determined to find the criminals involved.

“Warm Koskenkorva vodka scours the inside of his mouth, sets his throat ablaze. But he controls the sideways swerve, and the car comes out of the bend at almost the same speed as it went in.”

“And these days, with people thinking they know everything about everything, always taking a stance, shouting over one another because they are more right than the person in front of them, imagine how refreshing it would be if someone said simply. “I don’t know.”

“Tarvainen straightens his jacket, pulling the sides together across his stomach, which sits like a gym ball above his belt.”

“The first snowfall is in November and the snow melts for good in May. Summer always takes people by surprise – almost blinding the eyes, burning the skin, it gleams for a month or two, then disappears. And we return to the darkness. On a dark winter’s evening, it can sometimes feel as though summer is an instance of faith. Nothing around us indicates that something like that could ever come into being or has ever existed.”

“I realise I’m thinking that if God had a back, he turned it on me some time ago.”

~Quotes from “Little Siberia” by Anitti Tuomainen

• Love Reading UK: “Expect the unexpected from the get-go as the prologue lights the touch paper to an intense, smirky, carnival ride of a fabulous read.”
• The Guardian: “With moral dilemmas, plenty of action, and the author’s trademark mixture of humour and melancholy, this is Tuomainen’s best yet.”