I love Antti Tuomainen’s work and I will recommend his books to anyone who will listen. The Beaver Theory has been my most anticipated release this year. But in order to play, you have to be playful. You have to give characters room to move around in their created reality and in your mind. You should add The Beaver Theory to your list if you have an eye to the relationship between the mundane and the absurd. Specifically, though, you should add it to your list if you have some free time coming up, and can give yourself the space to really inhabit the world of Henri Koskinen, the actuary turned adventure park tycoon. This isn’t a book that rewards a ten minute dip in here and there, but if you can read the entire trilogy then you are in for something special.

This trilogy is about the joys of community: in a family, in a workplace, in a neighbourhood. Until the trilogy starts, Henri Koskinen has known none of these joys. He is smothered by mathematics and in particular the actuarial arts. Logic and probability are his siblings. Through an improbable series of events at the beginning of The Rabbit Factor, Henri leaves the actuarial profession but finds his skills are – given thought – transferable to running a decrepit adventure park that he has inherited. He navigates the park, with its crew of misfits, fends off malevolent forces and finds love where he isn’t expecting it. The second novel, The Moose Paradox, provides Henri with a new and even less predictable adversary. This time round, Henri is battling on new fronts. There’s a fresh set of incompetent gangsters trying to put YouMeFun out of business. But at the same time Henri moves in with Laura Helanto. It is a mark of his unease at this that the first person narrator continues to use her full name. Henri has to adjust to becoming a stepfather, and that means interacting with a bunch of school dads who hatch a plan to take the kids to Paris. Their fundraising efforts make no sense, but that’s OK. Back at YouMeFun, the team of unlikelies gather together to support Henri in his efforts to fend off the latest opposition.

I hope it’s not too much of a spoiler to say that Henri and YouMeFun prevail. The story is not so much of the victory, but of Henri’s growth over three novels, from a talking abacus to a man comfortable in his relationship and in society. It’s lovely, and it’s hilarious. 

Tuomainen’s heroes are idiotic and lovable. They are each a bundle of ridiculous views, sincerely held. Tuomainen’s doctrine appears to be that there will be redemption for those who are righteous and comfortable in their skin, as long as they have time for those around them. The result is fiction that is both very funny and extremely warming. But it works only if you the reader have time for the characters and the lovingly-drawn situations (given full rein by David Hackston). We may not personally live in a world where fibreglass beasts and slapstick villains dominate our days, but Tuomainen reminds us that we can still inhabit a place where love, hope and sincerity may conquer all.

Thanks to Orenda Books for the review copy.

Here’s our coverage of the other parts of the trilogy: The Rabbit Factor and The Moose Paradox.