Datura

The original novel was published in 2001. Translated by Anna Volmari and Juha Tupasela.

"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, author of A Stranger in Olondria

Our narrator works as an editor and writer for a magazine specializing in bringing oddities to light. Her mysterious publisher send her exploring through a city that becomes by degrees ever stranger. From a sunrise of automated cars working in silent precision to a possible vampire, she discovers that people are both odder and more ordinary as they might seem. Especially if you're eating datura seeds. Especially when the legendary Voynich Manuscript is involved.

"[Her work] contains scenes of startling beauty and strangeness." – Locus

Leena Krohn is one of the most respected Finnish writers of her generation. She was awarded the prestigious Finlandia Prize for best novel for Matemaattisia olentoja tai jaettuja unia (Mathematical Beings). Her short novel Tainaron: Mail from Another World, first published in English in 2004, was nominated for a World Fantasy Award.

Anna Volmari is a Finnish, internationally educated freelance translator. J. Robert Tupasela is a Finnish-Australian, New-York-raised translator.