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Leena Krohn
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Datura Kindle Edition

by Leena Krohn (Author), J. Robert Tupasela (Translator), Anna Volmari (Translator) Format: Kindle Edition
4.2 out of 5 stars 35 ratings
From the PW starred review: "Shadows of Kafka and Strindberg are infused with Krohn’s love of her fragile characters...Aficionados of the surreal will find this a contemporary masterwork."... translated by Anna Volmari 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 as 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
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  1. Print length
    202 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Accessibility
    Learn more
  4. Publication date
    26 Sept. 2013
  5. File size
    714 KB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00FGIJBMO
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cheeky Frawg
  • Accessibility ‏ : ‎ Learn more
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ 26 Sept. 2013
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 714 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 202 pages
  • Page Flip ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Best Sellers Rank: 1,289,909 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
  • Customer reviews:
    4.2 out of 5 stars 35 ratings

About the author

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Leena Krohn

Leena Krohn

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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

4.2 out of 5 stars
35 global ratings

Top reviews from United Kingdom

  • eppingstrider
    4.0 out of 5 stars a funny, weird book, full of wacky theories, but a great story
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 November 2019
    Format: Kindle Edition
    Datura is a weird book. I mean that in a good way – it fits into the subgenre of Fantasy/scifi of ‘weird’. Leena Krohn is an award-winning Finnish author, but much of the time this story could be set in any big city.

    One of the things about using a newspaper person, whether journalist or editor, is the storyline opportunities abound. Just as with Claire O’Beara’s Dining Out series, Leena Krohn gets her protagonist into all sorts of situations. Instead of aliens, she has weirdos. Well, people with belief sets that depart considerably from the norm.

    Throughout the book, the narrator dabbles in the outputs of the mysterious Datura plant someone has given her. I hate this plant. I hate the smell, the sight, and possibly the sound of it, if what one of the weirdos says is true. Our narrator is fascinated by it, and is sucked into various states which leaves you wondering which of her weirdos is real. Several events have all the characteristics of hallucinations. It makes you wonder how much research the author did, and in what depth!

    If you’d like a quick dabble in as many astonishing theories as possible in a very readable book, you would do worse than use this as your source. You might need to double check some of them. This book is a terrific feat of imagination, and I loved it, despite the occasionally oddities of the translation, or possibly of the Finnish style.

    Datura is a funny, weird book, full of wacky theories that just might have some basis in science, but a great story stringing it all together. I might read more from this author.
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Jessica Montgomery
    5.0 out of 5 stars Good read
    Reviewed in the United States on 5 June 2020
    Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
    Wish that the ending had more explanation. However love the chapter design and all of the characters, makes you want to keep reading!
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  • Freezer
    5.0 out of 5 stars A Very Enjoyable Read
    Reviewed in Australia on 17 December 2021
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    The beautifully written short chapters of this book make it a pleasure to read. Each chapter captures a moment with wonderful imagery and satisfyingly poetic conclusions.
    The author utilises her knowledge of pseudoscience, botany, mysticism, and conspiracies to build fascinating characters who inhabit the world. For those who enjoy these topics, they will not be disappointed with the authors care for detail and extensive knowledge.

    A great quick read for a short holiday, or before bed.
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  • W. M. Rice
    4.0 out of 5 stars Review: Datura
    Reviewed in the United States on 10 June 2014
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Leena Krohn is considered one of Finnland's finest living writers. Having read Datura (Or a Delusion We All See) (Finnish, 2001; English translation 2013 by Anna Volmari and J. Robert Tupasela), I am convinced that such statements are not hyperbole

    Datura presents itself as the straightforward story of two years in the life of our unnamed narrator, the editor of a paranormal magazine, The New Anomalist. While the narrator dislikes her job, due mostly to the cynical management of her friend and boss, "the Marquis," she enjoys getting to know the oddballs and eccentrics attracted to magazines like The New Anomalist. All the while, in an effort to cure her asthma, the narrator consumes the seeds of the datura plan given her as a birthday present. Are the oddities the narrator experiences a result of living in proximity to the Arctic Circle? Is it the influence of the magazine? Or are the datura seeds have unforeseen side effects?

    By keeping chapters short, typically two to four pages, Krohn creates a surreal, dreamlike atmosphere. The details related in each chapter are episodic, snapshots in the life of the narrator and her acquaintances. This is not to say that the chapters don't build upon one another, but the relationship of one chapter to the next is often tangential, with the whole only revealed at the end of the book.

    Krohn's language is beautiful, even in translation (a testament to the skills of the translators, no doubt). Consider, for instance, this early nugget on the nature of reality: "The dead of winter is like a pocket you can hide in. Winter offers one of the best illusions: the illusion that time can stop. If nothing grows, blooms, or flourishes, nothing can wither away, either" (page 25). Which happens to be exactly the way I feel about winter. Or this: "There are moments when everything is new, as if seen or heard for the first time, even language, words that I've read a thousand times. People, landscapes, items, even books. Now and then I stop at a familiar word as I read, and all of a sudden it amazes me, and I savour it like a new taste. For a fraction of a second I hesitate: what does the word refer to, does it really signify anything at all?" (page 33). What reader hasn't from time to time come across a word or phrase and thought, "But what does this really mean?"

    Which, incidentally, most readers will ask themselves as they make their way through Datura. The narrator glides from one odd encounter to the next, with no apparent rhyme or reason. Consider the Master of Sound, who develops a device that can mute all noise. Or the Pendulum Man, who determines whether or not food is safe to eat by swinging a pendulum over his plate. There's Loogaroo, the vampire, or "Otherkin," as the narrator refers to non-humans residing in human bodies. Such ephemera make up the narrator's day to day experience. As with the contents of The New Anomalist, or the occult shop ("parastore") the Marquis installs in the magazine's offices, including a singing fish that bedevils the narrator, some readers may find themselves, "What's the point?" Which, given Krohn's interest in perception and reality, is to miss the point entirely.

    Datura is a curious book that defies categorization. Is it "weird fiction"? Perhaps, but there are no cosmic monsters here. Krohn writes with a light touch, gently poking fun at her oddball characters even as she sympathizes with them. If the story seems aimless, be assured that you will enjoy its twists and turns. Krohn's language is hypnotic, compelling the reader ever forward. Highly recommended.
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  • Kim Baldwin
    5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it!
    Reviewed in the United States on 31 March 2016
    Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
    Great story. Dont try this at home!
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  • Guido Eekhaut
    4.0 out of 5 stars The Great European Fantasy.
    Reviewed in the United States on 22 November 2013
    Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
    If the great fantasists in the European tradition were looking for a successor, then here it is. Leena Krohn merits to be read by anyone who knows that 'fantasy' is more than Tolkien or Game of Thrones.
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