Wednesday
After Alice’s death I finally got to know about Wednesday—our dark day. The chauffeur visited the hospital for the aftercare of his burns, and when he returned, he brought me a plastic bag containing a partly burned book. I examined it for a while and saw it was Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë.
“They asked me to bring this to you,” he said. “It was in madam’s hands when the firemen found her. For her it was the most important book she wanted to save first. And I might be making a bad mistake now, but I think you have the right to know. It may help you to understand many things, perhaps also madam’s death. I wasn’t being quite honest with you when you asked about Wednesday. I have indeed met you in Wednesday, too—the both of you. You see, I at once sought you out in all the other days, when you first hired me as a chauffeur in Tuesday. But in Wednesday you couldn’t really afford to hire a chauffeur.”
And the chauffeur told me the whole story. In Wednesday, he found us in a big white house by the seaside. And finally, after getting to know us better, he’d started to drive us around, even in Wednesdays. He said we could use all kinds of free entertainment, but the house where he found us hadn’t been our private home, as it had seemed at first glance, but a home for people with disabilities.
He’d gone inside, presented himself to a woman in a nurse’s uniform and asked whether persons called Oswald Morrow and Alice happened to live there. Yes they did. Had been for any number of years. Both, however, had severe cognitive impairments, and they had no money, so they weren’t likely to hire a chauffeur, the nurse informed him. But would he have any use for a cat? Alice had saved it from the beach and nursed it back to health; some mongrel had savaged it real bad. Why does it need saving, he had asked. You can’t really keep cats in the home, she said, however much the residents liked it. Even the cinnamon buns they baked lately had more cat hair than cinnamon in them.
The nurse said that at the age of fifteen Alice had almost drowned in her parents’ swimming pool, after she’d been drinking too much wine at her birthday party and fallen in. She’d been pulled out and revived, but the lack of oxygen had already caused lasting injury to the girl’s brain. Alice had forgotten many major skills, and finally, when she came of age and her parents could no longer manage to take care of her, she’d been brought to this home, where she’d lived the last few decades.
The chauffeur had gone on to talk with Alice. She smiled at him ingenuously and started showing him a book she’d received as a present from her parents on her fifteenth birthday.
“Listen, I didn’t have time to read this, and now I can’t read at all anymore. I try, but I can’t. Sometimes I almost remember the letters and how to read. You know what: I’ve had dreams where I can read. They are lovely dreams. Do you read books? Look, there’s Oswald, he’s my special friend. I lived here for a long time before he was brought in. He’s younger than me. You know what happened to him? He was in a lift accident. He wasn’t hurt otherwise, but he hit his head so bad his brain went wrong. Sort of like my brain, but worse. We are good friends, Oswald and me, but he doesn’t always remember me. And he never talks to anybody, not to me neither. But he’s cute, and I like him. Listen, don’t tell this to the nurses, they’re such snoopers, but sometimes I go to Oswald at night and stay with him, in secret. We got our own rooms, it’s nice, but sometimes I get scared when I’m all alone. We’d get engaged, Oswald and I, but he doesn’t know what engaged is. What’s this book called? Can you tell? I’ve forgotten again. Would you read it aloud to me? What? What’s a bronty?”
1. Editorial note: In the original publication of Is Every Day Indeed A Tuesday? it was not made clear that Saturday and Sunday are included in Oswald Morrow’s definition of a weekday. This revised edition contains that update. – Ed.)
2. The author distinguishes between days “on” which he did things and days “in” which things occur nowadays. In the distant past people could do things “on” different days, as these followed linearly, while these days, timelines and realities have broken up to such an extent for multidiurnals that they must now distinguish time from its earlier manifestation, and see it as a kind of place. – Ed.
Acknowledgments
I’d like to acknowledge the Elina Ahlbäck Literary Agency, Danelle Boskovich, Neil Clarke, Carita Forsgren, Val Grimm, Pasi Karppanen, Peter Owen Publishers, Liisa Rantalaiho, and Jeremy Zerfoss—and of course, Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. My deepest thanks to all of you for your support, contributions, and expertise.
Extended Copyright Page
“Hairball” by Carita Forsgren © 2008. Originally published as “Karva” in USVA 1/2008. Translation by Anna Volmari and J. Robert Tupasela. Reprinted by permission of the author and the translators.
“The Laughing Doll” by Marko Hautala © 2010. Originally published in USVA International 2010. Translation by Jyri Luoma and edited by James Wheatley. Reprinted by permission of the author and the translator.
“Chronicles of a State” by Olli Jalonen © 2003. Originally published as “Koon aikakirjat” in Värjättyä rakkautta (‘Dyed love’), Otava, 2003. First English publication in The Dedalus Book of Finnish Fantasy, Dedalus, 2005. Translation by David Hackston © 2005/2013. Reprinted by permission of the author and the translator.
“Those Were The Days” by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen © 1999. Originally published as “Oi niitä aikoja: elämäni kirjastonhoitajattaren kanssa” in Portti 4/1999. Translation by Liisa Rantalaiho. Reprinted by permission of the author and the translator. For rights queries, please contact the Kontext Agency.
“The Border Incident” by Tuomas Kilpi © 2013.
“A Heart Clothed in Black,” excerpt from Pereat Mundus by Leena Krohn © 1998. From Pereat Mundus. Romaani, eräänlainen (‘Pereat mundus. A novel, sort of’), WSOY, 1998. Translation by Hildi Hawkins. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“White Threads” by Anne Leinonen © 2003. Originally published as “Valkeita lankoja” in Portti 4/2003. Translation by Liisa Rantalaiho. Reprinted by permission of the author and the translator.
“Watcher” by Leena Likitalo © 2012. Originally published in Weird Tales #359. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Ospreys” by Tiina Raevaara © 2006. Originally published as “Kalasääsket” in Novellit 2006, Gummerus, 2006. First English publication in New Finnish Fiction, Gummerus, 2006. Translation by David Hackston. Reprinted by permission of the author and the translator.
“Elegy for a Young Elk” by Hannu Rajaniemi © 2010. Originally published in Subterranean Press Magazine, Spring 2010. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Horseshoe Nail” by Mari Saario © 2007. Originally published as “Kenkänaula” in Portti 1/2008. Translation by Liisa Rantalaiho. Reprinted by permission of the author and the translator.
Excerpt from Not Before Sundown by Johanna Sinisalo © 2000. Originally published in Finland as Ennen päivänlaskua ei voi, Tammi, 2000. Published in Great Britain as Not Before Sundown, Peter Owen Publishers, 2003. Translation by Herbert Lomas. Reprinted by permission of the author and the publisher.
“The Garden” by Jyrki Vainonen © 2007. Originally published as “Puutarha” in Lasin läpi (‘Through the glass’), Loki-kirjat, 2007.Translation by Juha Tupasela and Anna Volmari. Reprinted by permission of the author and the translators.
“Delina” by Maarit Verronen © 1999. Originally published in Löytöretkeilijä ja muita eksyneitä (’The explorer and other lost people’), Tammi, 1999. Translation by Hildi Hawkins. Reprinted by permission of the author and the translator.
Other Nordic Titles from Cheeky Frawg
Our Cheeky Frawg publishing house has made a strong commitment to Finnish fiction, and will also be offering Swedish writer Karin Tidbeck’s Jagannath. We hope to expand that commitment past 2014, but obviously 2014 will be consumed mostly by our Leena Krohn omnibus (to be published late in the year).
Print and E-book
Datura by Leena Krohn, translated by Anna Volma
ri and Juha Tupasela. Our narrator works as an editor and writer for a magazine specializing in bringing oddities to light, a job that sends her exploring through a city that becomes by degrees ever less familiar. From a sunrise of automated cars working in silent precision to a possible vampire, she discovers that reality may not be as logical as you think—and that people are both odder and more ordinary than they might seem. Especially if you’re eating datura seeds. Especially when the legendary Voynich Manuscript is involved. Where will it all end? Pushed by the mysterious owner of the magazine, our narrator may wind up somewhere very strange indeed. “Datura is luminous—at once a secret history of losers, dreamers, and quacks, and a lyrical argument on the nature of reality. I thoroughly enjoyed it.” – Sofia Samatar, A Stranger in Olondria
Jagannath by Karin Tidbeck. Enter the strange and wonderful world of Swedish sensation Karin Tidbeck with this feast of darkly fantastical short stories. Whether through the falsified historical record of the uniquely weird Swedish creature known as the “Pyret” or the title story, “Jagannath,” about a biological ark in the far future, Tidbeck’s unique imagination will enthrall, amuse, and unsettle you. How else to describe a collection that includes “Cloudberry Jam,” a story that opens with the line “I made you in a tin can”? Marvels, quirky character studies, and outright surreal monstrosities await you in the book widely praised by Michael Swanwick, Ursula K. Le Guin, China Miéville, and Karen Joy Fowler. Winner of the Crawford Award and shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award. Introduction by Elizabeth Hand.
The Explorer & Other Stories by Jyrki Vainonen. This sly book showcases the quietly strange, unsettling short fiction of this acclaimed Finnish writer. Vainonen is renowned for his Finnish translations of the works of Seamus Heaney, Jonathan Swift, and William Shakespeare. Vainonen’s first collection of short stories was awarded the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize and his work has been featured in such iconic collections as the Dedalus Book of Finnish Fantasy. This first English-language collection includes stories from Jyrki Vainonen’s three collections and is translated by J. Robert Tupasela and Anna Volmari, with one story translated by Hildi Hawkins. Introduction by Johanna Sinisalo. “Vainonen’s deceptively cool voice lured me into a world where horrors and wonders lurk just beneath the surface." – Karin Tidbeck, Jagannath
E-book only
Tainaron by Leena Krohn. The classic novel by an iconic Finnish author, a finalist for the World Fantasy Award. Tainaron: a city like no other, populated by talking insects, as observed by the nameless narrator, who is far from home. Afterword by Matthew Cheney. “The novel contains scenes of startling beauty and strangeness that change how the reader sees the world. Krohn effortlessly melds the literal with the metaphorical, so that the narrator’s exploration of the city through its inhabitants encompasses both the speculation of science fiction and the resonant symbolism of the surreal.” – Locus.
Forthcoming in 2014
The Leena Krohn Omnibus. A not-to-be-missed and unstoppable thousand-page celebration of iconic Finnish author Leena Krohn. This epic volume, to be issued in hardcover, trade paperback, and e-book editions, will include the short novels Pereat Mundus, Tainaron, Dona Quixote & Other Citizens, and Gold of Ophir, among others, in addition to a selection of short fiction, essays, and poetry. The omnibus will also feature appreciations by other writers.
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