A Finnish journalist and a photographer out on assignment one June evening suddenly hit a young hare on a country road. The photographer, ultimately unsympathetic, abandons his journalist companion Vatanen, who sets off to find the wounded hare. Vatanen develops a close bond with the hare and in their adventures together, they witness people's avarice, inhumaneness, hypocrisy, cruelty, participation in bureaucracy, and mere existence, rather than living, in the world. This last realization in particular is life altering for Vatanen: he quits his job, discards his hopeless marriage, sacrifices financial security, and sells his most prized possession (a boat). All this Vatanen replaces with a life of odd jobs and on-the-road experiences. This picaresque novel could simply depict a middle-age crisis, but it reaches beyond fantasy or fiction, becoming mythic in its universal themes. The story is inventive, satirical, and quite humorous. It is also refreshingly sentimental in the sense that Paasilinna reaffirms our connection with the animal world and our inherent need for happiness and freedom to maintain quality of life.

阿托·帕西林納 Arto Paasilinna，1942年齣生於芬蘭北部拉普蘭地區，曾做過伐木工人、製衣工人、記者，是芬蘭當代相當重要的作傢。自1972年以來，阿托幾乎每年發錶一部作 品 ，目前已纍積近四十部，其中有詩集、散文集，半數以上是小說。阿托的作品齣版商形容：“每年帕西林納的作品齣版，和每年白樺樹落葉一樣，是構成芬蘭鞦天的一個重要元素。”他的作品已被翻譯成四十餘種文字，尤其暢銷於法國、美國、德國、日本。他的故事多聚焦在小人物身上，筆觸總保持著一種芬蘭式的幽默和輕盈從容的舉態。阿托的作品獲得過多項文學奬，包括1989年以《遇見野兔的那一年》獲得的法國Prix Litteraire Air Inter等三項國際文學奬。他是近幾十年來少數能從芬蘭跨至國際文壇、聲勢曆久不墜的作傢。