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(warning: spoilers in the last two paragraphs)

Over a decade ago, Johanna Sinisalo’s name was everywhere in the Anglophone sf world. The so-called “Queen of Finnish Weird,” whose deep interest in plants, myth, and the natural world inform her stories, was instrumental in introducing Finnish speculative fiction to Anglophone audiences. Sinisalo edited The Dedalus Book of Finnish Fantasy (2006), co-edied Giants at the End of the World (2017) with Toni Jerrman for Worldcon 75 in Helsinki, and wrote introductions and other pieces for online magazines about the Finnish fantasy, science fiction, magical realism, and surrealism available in English. Somehow, her most famous novel in English, The Core of the Sun, stayed in my TBR pile and only made it to the top now, but better late than never.

The Core of the Sun, so-named for a hallucinogenic chili pepper that may have more wide-ranging powers, is the story of one woman trying to survive in a repressive society while looking for her missing sister and pursuing her addiction to chili peppers. Vera and her sister Mira moved to Finland from Spain to live with their grandmother following their parents’ deaths. Once settled at their grandmother’s farmhouse, they learn that they are to be raised in accordance with Finnish social norms, within the bounds of the country’s eusistocratic society (“reign of health”). Specifically, most girls are raised as “elois”–submissive and stereotypically female–while most boys are raised as “mascos”–dominant and stereotypically male. The first half of the book pieces together how and why Finland adopted this social arrangement, in large part to reign in sections of society that were spinning out of control because of falling marriage rates and growing rifts between the sexes. Finland adopted this method of breeding for certain gender traits from early-20th-century experiments with wolves.

Of course, not everyone fits neatly into these gender roles. Those girls who are clearly independent, dominant, and focused are classified as “morlocks” and pushed to the margins of society, often winding up in orphanages, while boys who clearly aren’t “mascos” have much the same fate. Though Vera and Mira have their names changed to Vanna and Manna (in accordance with eloi rules) and are raised as elois, Vera is clearly not like other girls–she loves reading and learning, hates wearing makeup and high heels, and would rather play with trucks than dolls. Her grandmother recognizes this but comes to an understanding with Vera that she act like her eloi sister so that both can take their places in polite society.

When Manna marries the first man who’s willing (Harri), Vera worries about her sister’s fate but continues at eloi school, wondering what her future will look like as a secret morlock. Vera also knows that something isn’t right about Manna’s marriage, and eventually she stops hearing from Manna altogether. Eventually, Harri is held responsible for Manna’s death but gets a very slight punishment, while Manna’s body is never found. Vera then dedicates her life to finding out what happened to Manna.

Mixed in with excerpts from government documents, educational pamphlets, dictionary entries, and children’s stories from across the decades about elois, gender roles, health, and other relevant topics are Vera’s letters to Manna, detailing what the former’s life has been since her sister disappeared. We learn from these letters that Vera has partnered with Jare, a man who worked on their grandmother’s farm one summer. Together, Vera and Jare sell chili peppers on the black market. Like alcohol, drugs, and caffeine, chili peppers have been banned in Finland because they are seen as disruptive influences. People still crave these stimulants, though, but only chili peppers are still able to get across the border. By accident, Vera discovers that getting a fix with chili peppers helps her get through her depression each day, and with her addiction comes a demand for hotter and hotter chilis.

With Manna missing and Harri out of the picture, Vera and Jare take over Vera’s grandmother’s farm and invite a health cult–the Gaians–to come live and farm on their land. There, Vera, Jare, and the cult members will grow chilis and sell them underground, always aware that the Health Authority is on the lookout for exactly this kind of infraction. The Gaians, though, are not just interested in growing any chili peppers–they are after a legendary pepper that will give its taster supernatural powers. Apparently, the heat of this particular chili is said to give whoever ingests it the ability to exit their body and enter that of other people or animals–a chili they call the Core of the Sun. As one Gaian explains to Vera and Jare, “those who live in the north of Finland…know of methods by which a person can detach from his fragile shell and allow his spirit to move free and unfettered….At high levels, capsaicin produces an invaluable state of receptiveness. It produces tranquillity and sharpens the senses to their maximum sensitivity” (213).

By this point, Vera has stopped writing letters to Manna but saved them to give to her if she ever finds her. Thanks to the Gaians, Jare has saved up enough money to get himself and Vera out of Finland, but before they leave, Vera stops by Manna’s grave to give her the letters and say goodbye. Just days before, Vera had, out of curiosity, sampled a sliver of the Gaians’ latest cultivated pepper and experienced exactly what the Gaians had said about the Core of the Sun. When Harri attacks her at Manna’s grave, Vera uses some chili she has hidden in her bra to incapacitate him. She then ingests another sliver of the Core of the Sun to find Manna by moving her consciousness into the minds of various creatures. Harri had apparently sold Manna to a human trafficker, and Vera uses her powers to transfer Manna’s consciousness (Manna herself is barely alive) to her own mind and keep her there where she is safe. Vera can now go with Jare to a country where they can be free.

Sinisalo patiently builds up this complex world, slowly intertwining gender roles, black market chilis, missing sisters, and health cults, all brilliantly rendered in English by Lola Rogers. Chilis, like men and women, are bred for whatever traits the breeder wishes, and what emerges are extremes–overly-submissive women; powerful, hallucinogenic chilis. Through it all, we stay mostly in Vera’s mind, looking out at the world from her perspective as an outsider who wants her sister back more than anything. Ultimately, it is one chili pepper that helps her.