Raittila, Canal Grande

English translation of Canal Grande, a novel by the contemporary Finnish writer Hannu Raittila. The novel won the Finlandia Prize celebrating the best Finnish novel of the year when it was published in 2001. A team of Finnish experts is sent on a UNESCO mission to save Venice from sinking. A rich social comedy unfolds as northern cool meets Mediterranean carnival: two very different manifestations of modern European culture. But beneath the satire, a more serious moral critique develops, as...