Book Post #5

Purge
 

By Sofi Oksanen

This is written by a Finnish writer and is the first of her books to be published in English. It also won two of the highest and prestigious awards in Finland. Initially before reading I had some concerns as to whether there would be any sentences that may be ’lost in translation’, but I needn’t have worried it has been translated beautifully. There where the odd couple of sentences obviously, that didn’t flow quite as nicely but overall I don’t think it is obvious that it wasn’t written in English originally.

The story is based around two women Aliide and Zara. The story starts with Aliide living on her own in rural village in Estonia. Zara comes into her life suddenly when one morning Aliide awakes to find Zara asleep under her tree in front of her house. Zara appears distressed and is unwilling to tell Aliide where she is from, what happened to her or even anything real about herself. It is clear however that she doesn’t want to go back. From this beginning the story moves between the two main charters pasts and the present time to show the reader what has happened to make these to women so untrusting. But also how they are connected by their past. The story is set in a time of unrest in the former soviet states. And shows how lives were torn apart and the lengths people went too to survive.

This book is far from my usual style of book but I found it to be written in a very descriptive way and didn’t get lost in the history but felt it enhanced to story and made me understand more about the time these women were living in. The author has created good imagery and describes everything down to the sound of sugar being stirred in a bowl which always you to feel as if you have been in the house where Aliide has lived. The story slowly unfolds and introduces secrets which it then builds upon to create dramatic events which could only be found in times of war and civil unrest. Not knowing much about the fall of the Soviet Union didn’t make any difference to this story as it was used in a way to enhance why characters where acting the way they did rather than in a purely historical manner.

I felt pain and fear along with the characters and the ordeals they went through. All the events that happened in the story felt realistic and not too farfetched which only made the situations for me feel more dire in the sense that that could happen to people, and often still does.  The only real gripe I have is that the book was advertised as being trilling and on the scary side and whilst I enjoyed the read I feel these were poor words to describe this book. I would definitely recommend it to the more seasoned reader who wants to try something different, but not someone who prefers casual books as it is a slow mover.