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PEOPLE & ARTS Tuesday 9 July 2019
Lithuanian couple crowned ‘wife carrying’ world champions

SONKAJARVI, Finland (AP) they don't have a female The length of the obstacle the women can seem as down on the back on the
— A Lithuanian man and companion. course is said to be the enthusiastic as the men. male contestant with her
his wife have won the world legs around his shoulders.
'wife carrying' title, leaping The popularity of wife
over timber and wading carrying races has spread
through waist-high water outside Finnish borders,
to beat dozens of other with national competitions
couples for a second year held in Australia, Poland,
running. The prize is the England and the United
wife's weight in beer. States.
Vytautas Kirkliauskas and his Even China has announced
wife Neringa Kirkliauskiene it will be organizing its first
cleared a grueling 253.5 national edition in August
meter (278-yard) obstacle with the winners traveling
course in 1 minute 6.72 to Finland to compete in
seconds Saturday. the world championships
That was just a tenth of a in 2020. Finland has
second ahead of former established itself as a
six-time world champion, prime venue for unusual
Finland's Taisto Miettinen events that include the air
and his new partner Katja guitar world championship,
Kovanen. swamp soccer and a new
"After the second obstacle addition this year with
I thought I wouldn't make, a heavy metal knitting
but it's a great result" competition.
Kirkliauskas said, adding "It's summertime and we
"my wife, she is the best." just want to have some
Couples from over a fun together," said Eero
dozen countries, including Pitkanen, the competition's
Australia, France and founder.
Germany, took part in the "It's great to see our small
annual race in the central town put on the map
Finnish municipality of because of this."
Sonkajarvi, 300 miles (480 The rules stipulate that
kilometers) north of Helsinki, participants must have fun
the capital. during the race, but that
The rules stipulate that the doesn't stop them taking
woman must be over 17 People take part in the wife carrying race, a 278-yard obstacle course, during the 24th world the race very seriously.
years of age and weigh championships in Sonkajarvi, Finland, Saturday, July 6, 2019. Associated Press Along with the pride that
at least 49 kilograms (108 comes from being crowned
pounds). The event is inspired by a distance needed to avoid Revived in 1992, the world champions, the
Despite the event's name, Finnish legend, "Ronkainen being shot by pursuers. tradition now has men couple also returns home
couples don't have to be the Robber." In the 19th While the sport might carry their teammate in with the wife's weight in
married, and organizers say century tale, a gang have its origins in a dark various ways, though a beer. "The heavier the wife,
male contestants could pillages villages and steals legend, for participants it's popular method is for the the more beer for them,"
"steal a neighbor's wife" if the women. just lighthearted fun and woman to hang upside- said Pitkanen.q

Super sleuth Harry Hole at his sharpest in 'Knife'

By ROB MERRILL laughable name in English Harry develops theories of sages like this: "A confes-
Associated Press is apparently a joke caused the case, pursues them, sion. The truth. Atonement.
"Knife," by Jo Nesbø (Alfred by translation — in Norwe- comes to a dead end, The thought was liberating.
A. Knopf) gian, it's pronounced "Hoo- and then follows another But it was no more than a
Full disclosure: I am not a leh." When we meet him in thread that leads him to brief, soothing puff of wind
Harry Hole junkie. I saw the "Knife," Harry wakes up with the next suspect. Nesbø under the blazing sun in a
movie version of "The Snow- someone else's blood on has a great sense of pac- desert with an unbroken
man," the seventh in the his hands, no memory of ing. Each reveal — did he horizon of hopelessness."
now dozen novels featur- the night before, and des- do it? did she? — is meticu- In the end, if you're look-
ing Michael Fassbender as perate enough for a drink lously laid out as he takes ing to start a new crime
Nesbø's Norwegian detec- that he's willing to lick the readers along for the ride. series, it makes no sense
tive, but "Knife" is my first floor for a drop of alcohol. I never felt like I was ahead not to start with book one,
written exposure to what There's a hell of a spoiler of Harry in my deduction. "The Bat," published in 1997.
many consider the king of about 40 pages in that real- The final whodunit is pow- If you're already high on
Scandinavian crime fiction. ly juices the plot. Hole fans erful and leaves Harry — Harry, I suspect "Knife" will
And after reading it, I kind This cover image released by will be (happy?) to know and readers — wondering scratch all your itches until
of wish I'd started at the be- Alfred A. Knopf shows "Knife," that Norway's most notori- what's next. the very end, when Nesbø
ginning. by Jo Nesbo. ous serial rapist, Svein Finne, I do wish I could read it in its does the only sensible thing
Still, "Knife" is indeed a sharp Associated Press returns and isn't exactly re- native Norwegian. It can't an author can do after writ-
example of its genre. The are well-drawn and mys- formed after his years in be easy to translate any- ing 12 books featuring one
pages turn, the violence is terious. But let's talk about prison. thing, much less a crime character — set you up for
brutal, and the characters Harry Hole. For starters, that The book is dense, but brisk. novel, leaving us with pas- book 13.q