Follow the author

Tainaron: Mail from Another City Hardcover – July 11, 2006

by Leena Krohn (Author)

4.5 56 ratings

TAINARON: Mail From Another City is the first American publication by the internationally acclaimed Finnish author, Leena Krohn. TAINARON consists of a series of letters sent beyond the sea from a city of insects. TAINARON is a book of changes. It speaks of metamorphoses that test all of nature from a flea to a star, from stone and grass to a human. The same irresistible force that gives us birth, also kills us. Nominated for the prestigious Finlandia prize, this is the perfect introduction to the work of a modern fabulist.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Handsomely embellished with Finnish State Prize winner Inari Krohn's provocative etchings and xylographies, this brief, lyrical epistolary meditation on life, love and death, nominated for the prestigious Finlandia Prize, is the first of modern fabulist Krohn's works published in the U.S. The "woman" whose 30 letters make up the novel has recently come on a white ship to Tainaron, an insect-city within a volcanic cone, but she's forgotten why. The "lover" she addresses over the sea never replies, and she eventually abandons hope of answers, instead ranging the city with arthropodic "friend" Longhorn, who provides unsettling insights into the cycle of birth, change and absorption into new life. As summer fades to autumn and implacable winter nears, the narrator falls half in love with sleep and its easeful twin, death. The spiral-nautilus emblem of Tainaron's flag reminds its letter-writing guest, smitten by the realization of mortality, of the sweet anguish in the unavoidable alliance between birth and death, a recollection of "the dead [and] the gods." The author suggests no line divides language and music; her elegiac linguistic melodies enthrall the mind's ear, evoking as well bittersweet intimations of immortality more lovely, dangerous and disturbing than any realistic voice might utter.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Prime Books (July 11, 2006)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 128 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1930997825
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1930997820
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,913,512 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #27,741 in Folklore (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.5 56 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Leena Krohn

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Leena Krohn (born 1947) is one of the most respected Finnish writers of her generation, translated into many languages and winner of the prestigious Finlandia Prize. In her large body of work for adults and children, Krohn deals with issues related to the boundary between reality and illusion, artificial intelligence, and issues of morality and conscience. Her forthcoming Leena Krohn: Collected Fiction (December 2015; available for preorder mid-Nov.) provides English-language readers with 850 pages spanning her entire career, including six novels.

From cities of giant insects to a mysterious woman claiming to be the female Don Quixote, Leena Krohn's fiction has fascinated and intrigued readers for over forty years. In her novels, You will find yourself exploring a future of intelligence both artificial and biotech, along with a mysterious plant that induces strange visions, a pelican that can talk and a city of gold. Krohn writes eloquently, passionately, about the nature of reality, the nature of Nature, and what it means to be human.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

56 global ratings

1 star

0%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

mongoliandeathworm

A fantastical travel account

Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2011

Verified Purchase

Maybe I especially liked it because I'm into bugs but I thought this book was absolutely beautiful. It was unlike any other book I have read. It is a contemplative account written in a series of letters, of an unnamed person living abroad in a city of insects. In the letters she writes about various inhabitants of the city, cultural differences, and often gives some limited information on her own situation. While the setting seems more akin to fantasy, it often feels like more like a travel story and reminds me a lot of the times I've spent abroad. It is a short read but I've already read it at least twice.

I would definitely recommend it to readers who like travel stories (real or fictional) but not to readers who don't like stories that don't answer all of the questions they pose. Tainaron is definitely an open ended story but in that way, I think it feels more real and complete than a story that elaborates everything and works with the themes of transformation and the city.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Mark C

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2016

Verified Purchase

Interesting story or set of connected stories from an insect city.

Helpful

L. Miller

Strange, Ethereal, AND Introspective

Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2020

Verified Purchase

This collection of letters/chapters made me feel like an explorer in the fictional world and in my own world. It made me think about myself and the people around me as if we were all insects collecting sensory information through antennae and communicating with pheromones instead of by using eyes and words. A wonderful, accessible read for anyone looking for a good story.

Helpful

Catherine

What happens during metamorphosis?

Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2019

Verified Purchase

Ms. Krohn needs to write another book about what happens when spring comes. Will the narrator still remember her lover in the far off land? Will she still think that the insects are foreign creatures? I am waiting to read it!

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Lewis

Weird and great

Reviewed in the United States on February 29, 2020

Verified Purchase

This is my favorite kind of book. It's wierd in the best way. It sticks with you and expands and changes in your brain.

Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2015

Verified Purchase

An Unknown and unfamiliar world awaits. The city of Tainaron, unknowable and ever changing, is seen through the eyes of a human who has moved there for unknown reasons. She lives among the cties resident giant insects as the insects live lives vastly different to human beings. Mysterious and beautiful Tainaron is a small book with big impact. Lyrical, literary and strange without being inaccessible.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Simlasa

Weird Travel Fiction... With Bugs.

Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2015

Verified Purchase

I read an excerpt of this in one of the Vandermeer 'Weird' collections and had to seek it out.
It's a great bit of Alice In Wonderland travel fiction... with bugs. Lots of bugs.
It's not dark or scary but it is strange and a bit alarming in its invention.
I think it's best read in short stints.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

PocketEyes

Wonderful and Unique

Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2018

Verified Purchase

The more I read the more enchanted I was.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

jennifer

This was a beautiful read and a great recommendation

Reviewed in Canada on January 16, 2018

Verified Purchase

This was a beautiful read and a great recommendation. The story is made up of written letters to an unknown lover, detailing her life and observations while abroad in the Insect City of Tainaron.

There is no overreaching plot and it’s not long at all. I found the whole thing quite lovely. This presentation definitely worked best for me in short form because I do think I would have tired of a whole novel in this melancholy style. Also had it been longer, the need to have some answers would have eventually butted in and ruined my enjoyment of the story as a whole. It's perfect the way it is and gets a five star rating for that.

If you don’t mind your magical realism/slice of life stories on the weird side, this will probably work for you.

One person found this helpful

Dan Stepnens

Beautiful, deep novel

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 24, 2015

Verified Purchase

The best novel I have read in a very long time. Beautifully written (and translated), lyrical and experimental, it touches on theams of life, death, birth and change. It's amazing how such a fantastical world as the City is so vividly realised, and how fleshed out the Narrator and the characters become in such a sort book. Absolutely magical, with levels of depth you rarely see. I sincerely hope more of this authors work is translated soon.

One person found this helpful

See more reviews