Birdbrain by Johanna Sinisalo

A man and a woman go on an extended hiking tour of Australia and New Zealand, and especially Tasmania, Australia’s island state, in Birdbrain by the Finnish writer Johanna Sinisalo. Neither is a particularly likable person, or has a particularly interesting voice.

Jyrki makes his living as a roving bartender, spending a few months here, a few weeks there. He is a snob about hiking and camping, expressing nothing but disdain for any campsite that offers bunk beds in a bare bones cabin instead of a place to pitch your tent. He prides himself on never carrying too much, so that he eats his very last crumbs of food on his very last day of a trip — which is all well and good, until things begin to go missing. He drives his companion relentlessly, refusing to ever have an easy day of hiking when he could instead force them to go twice the recommended distance. Read More