3 9 1
by
J. Pekka Mäkelä

"...the most important Finnish SF novel of the year [2004]"
-- Pasi Karppanen, Kosmoskynä

• Published in Finnish by
   Like Kustannus Ltd.
• Biographical info
• Read excerpts in English

A nurses aide in a Helsinki hospital recognises her fellow worker from a picture of a photographer -- who vanished without a trace during the final year of the WWII. Where he has been? And how come he hasn't gotten any older during the almost 50 years he's been missing?

During a quiet night shift unfolds a strange story of involuntary time travel -- being caught in the backwash of an expedition from the far future, headed towards the late fourth century Egypt. Their mission: to rescue the contents of the legendary Library of Alexandria before all the precious books are to be destroyed and vanished with the forthcoming times of religious fanatics and wars.

But there's trouble ahead of the expedition. The people from the future have now a burden of involuntary assistants, who just want to get back to their own time - by any means necessary. And Alexandria in the year 391 AD isn't exactly a safe place for strangers from the future: the ethnic and religious problems are just waiting for a spark to consume the great city in flames.

Back in the 20th century, the nurse and her fellow worker travel to Egypt, trying to find traces of the expedition's visit fifteen hundred years earlier - is there any proof left to confirm the unbelievable story?

J. Pekka Mäkelä is known as a translator and music critic. 391 is his well-received first SF novel.

"A powerful example of J. Pekka Mäkelä's skillful, flowing, lively writing."
-- Jussi Ahlroth, Helsingin Sanomat

"The novel is an interesting blend of comic book-like action and quiet meditation... an extremely well written book, a joy to read. Like [Philip K.] Dick, Mäkelä has an eye for small everyday problems, like the protagonist's stumbling relations with women and his attempts to find meaning for his time-distorted life."
-- Juha K. Tapio, Kaleva

"The present is interlaced with the historical Egypt, and the suspense holds until the end. The book is at its best expertly describing the bustle of ancient Alexandria."
-- Pohjalainen

"391's time travel to Alexandria makes an fascinating read; most of all, it is a time travel to being a human, how little we have changed over time and how little we might change in the future."
-- Anne Leinonen, Kosmoskynä