The plot – what is this novel about?
Helsinki. Fifteen-year-old Wilhelmina (Mina) Holm is a thief who lives in an old, dilapidated woodshed on the outskirts of town. The girl copes with life, although one day she makes an unfortunate decision – she robs a young man of a small, but – as it turns out later – extremely valuable trinket. To her surprise, the gentleman quickly finds her, stands in the woodshed door and asks for the property to be returned. Her name is Tom and (surprisingly!) Offers Mina a job at her home, which initially raises the protagonist’s anxiety. The terms of the contract are clear: the girl is to look after Professor Wiktor Worowski, who is currently in Helsinki. As you can see from this short introduction, the action of the novel gradually gains momentum. Mikama intensifies the events in an appropriate way, while playing with the reader a cat and a mouse. The place of the action is important in building the atmosphere – 19th-century Helsinki is the perfect space for a young, adventurous thief who meets a mysterious gentleman on her way. Emotions are especially important, although I would like to point out that we know little about the characters themselves. The author made sure that they were expressive, but deprived the reader of the opportunity to explore the character’s structure.
The perfect book for teenagers (and not only)
It is a pleasure to read this proposal from the Dwukropek publishing house! The book is fantastically published – a thick, beautiful cover encourages a literary journey, white paper does not tire the eyes, and the font is suitable for readers of all ages (even though it is dedicated primarily to teenagers). The style of Mikama will surely appeal to the readers – she avoids excessive stylization of the language, making it understandable and accessible to everyone. The translator, Sebastian Musielak, also deserves great applause – 19th-century Helsinki reality is – as I have already mentioned – an ideal space for building a climate, but the language proper to the inhabitants of Finland may be difficult to reproduce, among others. due to archaisms. Fortunately, Musielak coped with all translation issues perfectly. One more round of applause! The novel raises important questions about the future and development of humanity (automation, mechanization, development, imitating human behavior, human soul, identity …) and they will swirl in the minds of the readers. The rapid development of technology has its effects – and they are not only positive … As you will learn from the novel, Mina’s reality is not significantly different from our present day.
Debut
We know little about Anniin Mikama, the author of The Magician and the Thief . Apart from writing, she also deals with preparing illustrations. Her debut is the book Magik i thodziejka (orig. Taikuri ja taskuvaras ) published in 2018 , winner of the Finnish Topelius Award. In 2019, Mikama wrote the continuation of her debut – Huijarin oppipoika , and in 2020 the last installment of the trilogy – Tinasotamiehet – was released . So far, only the first part of the series has appeared in Poland – the reviewed novel Magik i Złodziejka . I hope that Dwukropek Publishing House will also decide to publish more volumes.
