A magical novel about nature and two women’s intertwined fates
Author: Linnea Kuuluvainen
Finnish original: Metsänpeitto
Publisher: Gummerus, 2024
Genre: speculative fiction
Number of pages: 361 pp
Reading material: Finnish original, English sample, English synopsis
The natural world has become angry with humanity and is beginning to use its power. To escape nature’s vengeance and isolate themselves from it as well as they can, people have fled to small city-states. One of them is the former city of Turku, where a tightly guarded Nation has been established. Ingrid grew up in this new world, living all her life in the Nation. After her mother’s death, she gets a job with a research group called Wild Rosemary, whose task is to map the conditions outside the walls of the Nation. Although the forest has been pacified, it is still angry and dangerous. And soon there is discord among the researchers as well.
That’s when I realize that my mother’s rules, her orders that I forget everything having to do with the forest, were meant to protect me. She wanted to keep me safe. She took away my stories so that I would be able to stay far away from the forest, so that I wouldn’t put myself in danger. (Translated by Lola Rogers)
The Thick of the Forest is an entrancing and linguistically captivating first novel about a forest that haunts people and two women whose stories intersect.
About the author:
Linnea Kuuluvainen