Reviews

• “In Dog Park, as in her other fictions, Ms. Oksanen mines living history, digging up toxic societal elements that have explosive power. /…/ The slow build and devious plotting of Dog Park will tantalize the Rubik’s Cube-minded, and the book offers the retrospective satisfaction of infinite replay, like a game with multiple resolutions.”

• “In the fertility industry, Sofi Oksanen has found a perfect picture of the inequality that Dog Park is all about. /…/ Dog Park works best in its critique of society, taking a whip to the human industry that values profit over life, and wherein social inequalities have drawn up a field of different rules, tactics and possibilities for its players. Sofi Oksanen has also a complete grip of the psychological realism that has hardened two women [who are the protagonists of Dog Park].”

• “Dog Park has a complex narrative with many threads, and Sofi Oksanen writes unsentimentally about motherly love, coercion, greed, poverty and desperation.”

• “Oksanen’s novel becomes both a sharp analysis of society and a very accomplished and ingeniously constructed suspense novel. /…/ [Dog Park] follows the same dramaturgy as the best TV series, with plenty of small arches held together perfectly by a big one. With gaps and riddles, preludes and flashbacks, until it all falls seamlessly into place. It must be even better in the second reading. /…/ Oksanen’s novel is a suspense novel and a social one. /…/ A Finnish-Estonian Charles Dickens novel.”

• “Sofi Oksanen has written another unstoppable novel.”

• “Legal, moral and psychological nuances are kept in the gray areas. And Oksanen, an expert in exploring such dark gaps, successfully addresses the subject [of exploitation of the female body].”

• “Oksanen writes with great vigor about the tragic situation and treatment of women, exposing their cruel reality in a merciless way. /…/ [The protagonist’s story] is chocking in every way and […] the author manages to execute it in a brilliant manner with a technique that doles out information in small bite-size pieces, thus building the suspense; for this is truly a suspense novel, even though there is no police in sight. /…/ No stone has been left unturned in the creation of this credible and realistic plot. The story is a powerful one.”

• “During my reading, I of course think of Margaret Atwood’s fictional novel The Handmaid’s Tale – but also of something far harder to fathom: reality. I deeply wish it would be another. [Dog Park] is as engaging and dark as it is excruciatingly creeping like Purge. /…/ And – as with Purge – the novel Dog Park is chaotic and uninterruptedly fascinating. It has beauty. A frightening beauty.”

• “Sofi Oksanen’s thriller about women in the surrogacy industry is merciless. /…/ Sofi Oksanen has written a solid, fast-paced thriller that efficiently illustrates the inherent balance of power that runs the fertility industry in the eastern outposts. /…/ Oksanen produces a thriller reminiscent of le Carré’s better moments. /…/ The result is a tale that is impossible to put down: Oksanen depicts her individuals as complete human beings.”

• “Oksanen is skillful at depicting how seamlessly communist transgressions have transitioned into consumerist ones.”

• “A real page-turner that both seduces and engages the reader. /…/ [Sofi Oksanen is] one of the foremost portrayers of the politically turbulent 20th century, with an unwavering ability to connect personal stories with events at the macro level. /…/ The duality of human vulnerability and cruelty is drawn with an unsentimental edge. /…/ A particularly read-worthy novel.”

• “Fans of slow-burning suspense will find much to enjoy.”

• “A prose as clear as one can wish for.”

• “[Dog Park] is a novel that creeps under your skin, that stings with sharp needles. /…/ With an edge of steel and chiseled, crystal clear prose, Sofi Oksanen writes how we in our world close our eyes and allow for a predation of women’s bodies.”

• “Dog Park is a close-knit psychological thriller of two women not being able to escape the memory of their lost children and their struggle to set things straight again. /…/ A perfect page-turner in the winter darkness.”

• “The depiction relies on a realistic foundation but sometimes feels so twisted that you think of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian The Handmaid’s Tale. /…/ Her storytelling has a formidable power and she a rare ability to create edge-of-your-seat stories with layers upon layers of uncomfortable questions. /…/ [Dog Park] plunges its teeth into one of our most vulnerable spots.”

• “An incredible story.”

• “In Dog Park, [Sofi Oksanen] has [given herself] a painful and acute task, and story that rests upon solid research. /…/ The novel is at its best when Sofi Oksanen brings out the details of the women’s lives. Sharply drawn shards.”

• “If a reader wants to reach the very heart of art […] they must know […] Chuck Palahniuk, Michel Houellebecq, Michael Cunningham, Haruki Murakami, Federico Andahazi and Sofi Oksanen. These are the names of those who will leave a great void behind when they are done with writing. /…/ The very best of contemporary world literature.”

• “[Dog Park] is written in a successful style: fast-paced [and] close-knit at the same time.”

• “One of my favorite, and at the same time most well-known Nordic authors, Sofi Oksanen […] has with the novel Dog Park once again shown us what a masterful literary talent she possesses. Something she’s already proven with her previous works. /…/ Dog Park is an excellent book. /…/ Timeless. And very topical.”

• “In addition to a carefully thought-out plot, one of the book’s main qualities is Oksanen’s crystal clear prose. Reading a novel of this kind activates all of one’s senses.”

• “An ambiguous horror story about egg donorship and the black market, [Dog Park] keeps the reader equally balanced between frustration and fascination.”

• “Oksanen has a couple of immensely strong cards on hand when she succeeds: Her brushstrokes paint an image of life in the former Soviet Union states with such vividness that you can see it before your own eyes and smell the scents. /…/ Oksanen doles out bits of information and reveals lies along the way in a superb way, and just as perfectly, she lets the last chapter of the novel tremble with suspense.”

• “Sofi Oksanen returns to the top of the literary world with her latest novel, Dog Park. /…/ A suspense novel that holds the reader in a tight grip until the very last page. /…/ Sofi Oksanen has a keen sense for how to portray time periods and atmospheres, and is able to describe the smell from a jar of pickles or a cheap bottle of perfume so that scent stings the reader’s nose. The depictions of family and work life in a society where corruption permeates every part of social life also make a strong impression. /…/ Sofi Oksanen depicts this society and especially how women become victims of cynicism and corruption with a poignantly clear gaze. But the novel also displays Sofi Oksanen’s ability as a sensitive chronicler and conveyor of the longing for love, and the wish of being able to live a completely ordinary and trivial family life. Dog Park is a suspense novel with literary gravitas. /…/ Sofi Oksanen has penned one of her best novels.”

• “With precise cuts and shrewd devices, the poet attacks the lucrative industry associated with assisted fertilization. /…/ This is an advanced tendency novel that the legendary [Sofi Oksanen] (…) should be proud of.”

• “Oksanen has written a sharp, sociocritical novel. /…/ Passionate drama, murder and revenge make this a thriller-like novel with a high level of suspense.”

• “Skillfully told fiction that will help the reader visualize a complex reality. Sofi Oksanen is a master.”

• “Good art evokes thoughts and emotions, and so does Oksanen’s books. Dog Park is no exception.”

• “Dog Park is one of the most breath-taking novels of the fall. /…/ when [Sofi Oksanen] succeeds, her readers are blessed with something larger than life. With [Dog Park], [Oksanen] truly does triumph. [Dog Park] is an incredible mixture of love, fear, violence, oppression, hopes, and disappointments.”

• “Dog Park is a cool, stylish, utterly cleverly written novel that deals with issues that are both upsetting and in many ways divisive.”

• “Sofi Oksanen knows how to leave you astounded.”

• “Sofi Oksanen’s new novel Dog Park is an elaborate and powerful depiction of the egg donation industry.”

• “Nerve-racking until the last page. /…/ [Dog Park is] ambitious in its scope and bold in the issues it addresses. /…/ Sofi Oksanen knows how to paint a portrait, and skillfully avoids cumbersome reconstructions […] in her description of political and social situations. [Oksanen] knows how to isolate small symbolic issues that effectively become great demonstrations of the consequences of historical events in daily life.”

• “Oksanen perfectly masters both mood and metaphors, once again choosing a theme that gets under your skin, and executes the two-timelines storyline brilliantly. /…/ The egg donors of Dog Park find their counterparts in the female slaves of The Handmaids Tale (1985) and The Testaments (2019) by Margaret Atwood.”

• “Dog Park is a high-quality novel that reads like a thriller.”

• “Sofi Oksanen writes in a unique, voluble and strict manner, and the story is propelled forward with the ferocity of a thriller.”

• “Sofi Oksanen’s sixth novel Dog Park is a stunning and furious depiction of the traumas and struggles of the survivors of the Soviet Union. /…/ Sofi Oksanen is a master writer who is not afraid to tackle difficult topics.”

• “Sofi Oksanen’s [Dog Park] is incredibly spot-on with details, so precise it’s hard to believe and easy to envy. ”

• “A grand novel. /…/ A dark past is cleverly puzzled together.”

• “[Sofi Oksanen] keeps one on the edge of one’s seat, revealing only bits of the puzzle at a time and raising the suspense with her unique way of describing the Eastern Bloc’s grim yet fascinating environment and atmosphere.”

• “A striking portrait of women. /…/ Both a thriller and a historical novel, Dog Park is in a nutshell […] a Grimm tale made reality.”

• “Sofi Oksanen’s Dog Park is a social-feminist commentary carried by an indignation and extraordinary environmental descriptions, that persuades in its depiction of the exploitation of the female bodies in the fertility industry. /…/ A piece of nerve-racking fiction in which painful chapters of modern European history are effectively intertwined with feminist perspectives. /…/ [One] of the novel’s diligently used and suspense-building elements is the constant, anticipatory and ominous hints of upcoming dramatic events and revelations. /…/ Dog Park is in a good old-fashioned sense, a shocking tale.”

• “It’s precisely this ability to trigger this kind of eerie suspicion [within the reader], that makes Oksanen such a chillingly great author. /…/ Had [the protagonists] had the leading roles in any ordinary thriller, they would have embodied the terrifying fantasy of two femme fatales, but […] Oksanen also brings us to the dirty [areas] and the women are not just tragic flowers, but people with motifs. This makes Dog Park an unforgettable experience.”

• “There is no doubt that you have to be a true master of the art to write this kind of story /…/ that seamlessly encloses different literary genres, spanning from thriller to noir to a perfected political novel.”

• “[Sofi Oksanen] analyzes and doesn’t overload. /…/ [Dog Park] takes your breath away – not just because of the story, but because of our society.”

• “Oksanen paints a dark portrait of morality and draws a historical outline of the political developments in the region in the past decades. [Oksanen] depicts young women’s living conditions both vividly and soberly.”

• “Oksanen’s latest book is an intricate, textured slow-burner that paints a vivid picture of a post-Soviet state where gangsters rule and the exploitation of the female body is big business.”