The Howling Miller

Arriving in Northern Finland after the Second World War Gunnar Huttunen buys adilapidated mill on the Suukoski rapids of the Kemijoki River. An IgnatiusReilly o... » 

Arriving in Northern Finland after the Second World War Gunnar Huttunen buys adilapidated mill on the Suukoski rapids of the Kemijoki River. An IgnatiusReilly of the Finnish 1940s Gunnar is an eccentric outsider swimming againstsocietys current. Prone to rapid mood swings and a general lack of decorum heis feared and reviled by village notables for his wayward mannermostnoticeably his indulgent nighttime howling which he gets up to when he feelsthe need to do something special and to which he is joined in deliriouschorus by the local dogs. The millers situation rapidly spirals out ofcontrol. Gunnar is cast out of society the villagers become his jailors andthe forest his prison. A miller without a mill Gunnar is forced to assume ahermits lifestyle. At once a tale of conformity and the consequences of itsantithesis The Howling Miller paints a crystalline portrait of society itsnorms and what it means to function outside of them. This is a tour de forcetale told with verve humor and a sense of the bizarre. «