book review: New Finnish Grammar by Diego Marani
Translated from the Italian by Judith Landry. The backstory: Diego Marani's debut novel, New Finnish Grammar , was originally published in Italian in 2000. The translated edition is on the 2012 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize shortlist . The basics: (from the publisher) "One night at Trieste in September 1943 a seriously wounded soldier is found on the quay. The doctor, of a newly arrived German hospital ship, Pietri Friari gives the unconscious soldier medical assistance. His new patient has no documents or anything that can identifying him. When he regains consciousness he has lost his memory and cannot even remember what language he speaks. From a few things found on the man the doctor, who is originally from Finland, believes him to be a sailor and a fellow countryman, who somehow or other has ended up in Trieste. The doctor dedicates himself to teaching the man Finnish, beginning the reconstruction of the identity of Sampo Karjalainen, leading the missing man to ret...