The Misadventures of the New Satan (B)

Satan has a problem: God has come to the conclusion that it is unfair to send souls to hell if they are fundamentally incapable of living a righteous life on earth. If this is the case, then hell will be shut down. Satan is given the chance to prove that human beings are capable of salvation if he agrees to live as a human being and demonstrate that it is possible to live a righteous life. And so Satan ends up back on earth, living as Jurka, a put-upon tenant of a run-down Estonian farm. His patience and good nature are sorely tested by the machinations of his scheming, unscrupulous landlord... This is the last novel of Estonia's greatest writer, Anton Tammsaare (1876-1940), and it constitutes a fitting summation of the themes that occupied him throughout his writing: the search for truth and social justice, and the struggle against corruption and greed. ""This folklorish rendering of peasant life is full of knowing details.""-Rain Taxi