Purge: Sofi Oksanen

I bought a copy of Sofi Oksanen's 'Purge' while I was in Norfolk this weekend and became instantly gripped by the first few pages. I'm now patiently waiting to finish work and go home to a hopefully empty house, make a pot of tea, and to catch up on the the final few chapters. This book really deserves a wide readership. 'Purge' is published in the UK by Atlantic Books. It has been a number 1 bestseller in Finland and has won numerous literary prizes, including Finland's including Finland’s premier literary award, The Finlandia Award. How long now before a Finnish/Estonian production film is made?

Photo Credit: Toni Harkönen

A Norse Saga

Finished my crazy early 6am shift this morning over at the Southbank and on the way home had a call that two Norwegians (Jurgen and his daughter) will be arriving on Saturday and can they stay for a few days. Looks like I'm going to have to make my way to Scandinavian Kitchen tomorrow with a shopping basket in an effort to have something welcoming in the cupboard, or perhaps visit the Finnish and Norwegian Church on Albion St (just up past Deptford) in Rotherhithe SE16 - the Finnish Church has a shop attached to it selling rye bread and pastries (the Church also holds a really good annual Christmas Fayre where you can buy lots of Finnish produce and Christmas decorations). Failing that, Scandinavian Kitchen now opens on Sundays, so it looks rather likely we all will pitch up at a table for coffee and some lunch.

Join us on the Nightshift

A 9am start at the dentist today which has turned into a bit of a lengthy, pricey and painful saga. However, this meant I had most of the day left free to see two films more or less back to back; Wender's Pina (again) with a break for lunch then on to see Hanna (well, it had Eric Bana in it; 'Munich' it isn't, but it is worth a watch for Tom Hollander wearing the 'very wrong' white track suit in which he does a lot of running about in). Enjoying the screening of 'Nightshift' on BBC4 as part of Icelandic week, a sitcom based at an Icelandic Shell petrol station; if you like the black humour of Finnish director, Aki Kaurismaki, then this should be right up your steet - Jack Black has bought the rights to turn this into a US comedy series/film.