The Core of the Sun

Sinisalo, Johanna

3.86

3,793 ratings by Goodreads

ISBN 10: 1522634983 ISBN 13: 9781522634980

Publisher: Audible Studios on Brilliance audio, 2016

From the author of the Finlandia Award-winning novel Troll: A Love Story, The Core of the Sun further cements Johanna Sinisalo's reputation as a master of literary speculative fiction and of her country's unique take on it, dubbed "Finnish weird". Set in an alternative historical present, in a "eusistocracy"—an extreme welfare state—that holds public health and social stability above all else, it follows a young woman whose growing addiction to illegal chili peppers leads her on an adventure into a world where love, sex, and free will are all controlled by the state.

The Eusistocratic Republic of Finland has bred a new human subspecies of receptive, submissive women, called eloi, for sex and procreation while intelligent, independent women are relegated to menial labor and sterilized so that they do not carry on their "defective" line. Vanna, raised as an eloi but secretly intelligent, needs money to help her doll-like sister, who has disappeared. Vanna forms a friendship with a man named Jare, and they become involved in buying and selling a stimulant known to the Health Authority to be extremely dangerous: chili peppers. Then Jare comes across a strange religious cult in possession of the Core of the Sun, a chili so hot that it is rumored to cause hallucinations. Does this chili have effects that justify its prohibition? How did Finland turn into the North Korea of Europe? And will Vanna succeed in her quest to find her sister, or will her growing need to satisfy her chili addiction destroy her? Johanna Sinisalo's tautly told story of fight and flight is also a feisty, between-the-lines social polemic—a witty, inventive, and fiendishly engaging listen.

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Review:

The Core of the Sun has been compared to Atwood and Vonnegut, but Sinisalo's disturbing and often whimsical vision is uniquely her own. - Guardian

Margaret Atwood and Aldous Huxley get down with Carlos Castaneda in The Core of The Sun, an adventurous and original dystopian satire which isn't likely to be forgotten in a hurry... It's dark, biting, unlike anything you'll read this year and, ultimately, a triumph. - The Herald

Meticulously imagined . . . the novel creates an impressively detailed and extremely frightening world. Written with wit and grace . . . Maintains an impressive grasp on plot and suspense, easily luring the reader into taking its characters, politics, and striking story to heart. - Kirkus Reviews

[Sinisalo] ups the ante with well-paced and eerily fitting facts about the history of science, clever literary narrative, and complex characterization. This tale will appeal to dystopia lovers and fans of darkly offbeat suspense. - Booklist

A chilling tale reminiscent of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale... a fascinating story centered on gender politics. - Washington Post

As a mirror held slantwise to patriarchal violence, it is often convincing, and rarely without also being clever and comical. Likewise, as a repudiation of the egalitarian gloriousness of the 'Nordic model,' it's a thing we rarely behold in America: a feminist novel that propels you forward to its terrifying, pulpy conclusion. - Flavorwire

There's a streak of scathing satire to the book's fragmentary science fiction, and in that sense it sits somewhere between Margaret Atwood and Kurt Vonnegut - but Sinisalo crafts a funny, unsettling, emotionally charged apparition of the present that's all her own. - NPR

An intoxicating book, sizzling to look at and as spicy as a hot pepper.

--Weltexpress (Germany)

Book Description:

From the queen of 'Finnish weird', a captivating and witty speculative satire of a Handmaid's Tale-esque welfare state where women are either breeders or outcasts, addicts chase the elusive high of super-hot chilli peppers and one woman is searching for her missing sister

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