• The Core of the Sun

• By: Johanna Sinisalo, Lola Rogers – translator
• Narrated by: Coleen Marlo

From the author of the Finlandia Award-winning novel Troll: A Love Story, The Core of the Sun further cements Johanna Sinisalo’s reputation as a master of literary speculative fiction and of her country’s unique take on it, dubbed “Finnish weird”. Set in an alternative historical present, in a “eusistocracy” – an extreme welfare state – that holds public health and social stability above all else, it follows a young woman whose growing addiction to illegal chili peppers leads her on an adventure into a world where love, sex, and free will are all controlled by the state.

The Eusistocratic Republic of Finland has bred a new human subspecies of receptive, submissive women, called eloi, for sex and procreation while intelligent, independent women are relegated to menial labor and sterilized so that they do not carry on their “defective” line. Vanna, raised as an eloi but secretly intelligent, needs money to help her doll-like sister, who has disappeared. Vanna befriends a man named Jare, and they engage in the sale of a stimulant that the Health Authority considers extremely dangerous: chili peppers. Later, Jare stumbles across a strange religious cult possessing the Sun Core, a chili pepper so hot that it is rumored to cause hallucinations. Does this chili have effects that justify its ban? How did Finland turn into Europe’s Korea? And will Vanna succeed in her quest to find her sister or will her growing need to satisfy her chili addiction destroy her? The intensely told story of Johanna Sinisalo’s war and flight is also a scathing social polemic, between the lines – one that sounds witty, creative, and insanely engaging.

I loved the narrator- her voice was perfection and she wasn’t dead. She made the story a great listen. I laughed, cringed and pondered the odd tale, but definitely enjoyed it.

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