Purge

Young Finnish/Estonian writer Sofi Oksanen has written about women in Estonia during two critical periods of estonian history - the beginning of the soviet demolition of Estonia and the beginning of Estonia's emergence from that oppression. It is also a more universal story of the resilience of women and the price they pay to survive. A great choice for a book club.

This book tells the story of three generations of Estonian women (and the men in their lives). The book chapters jump in time to tell the tale of some horrifying events in their lives which correspond to the historical events which take Estonia, in general, and their rural village specifically through WWII, soviet rule and independence. The story centers around two women, Aliide Truu and Zara who is the victim of a sex-trafficking operation and ends up in Aliide's home while running away from her captors. Only that Zara has a picture of Aliide and her sister, her arrival wasn't coincidental. There is a psychological side to this book, which I felt was more fascinating than the historical side. Aliide's motivations are a product of lost love and jealously, but her actions are a product of survival in an oppressing society; she cheats on her husband and turns in her sister to the authorities. Hans, Aliide's brother in law and the subject of her fantasies, is a Nazi sympathizer and a murderer. Zara goes looking for easy money and gets caught up in the harsh and violent world of prostitution. When Zara arrives on Aliide's doorstep, a Pandora's box is opened and shines a light of decades of abused women both in Communistic as well as Democratic societies. As mentioned, the book is not written in chronological order, but the story unfolds very simply, in a country where nothing seems as it is, under a government which is vigilant, oppressive, cruel and paranoid, yet has taken the role of a nanny which has many people so dependent on it they almost forgot how to take care of themselves. The characters in this book are drawn very well, no-one is what he or she seems to be, the world is filled with dangers and the extremes we (Americans) are so used to simple do not exist. The women in this novel purge their soul, name and their past.

Wow. This is probably one of the best books I've read in years - and I read a lot. "Purge" certainly cannot be described as "easy reading", although it's very suspenseful and a definite page-turner. From the very first page on, it drips heavy with deep, dark secrets, pain and shame. It cannot really be described as "depressing" either. Throughout the book I kept sensing some kind of a weak ray of hope... but I couldn't really understand where it was coming from, or what the title of the book meant. Until the very end. Then, it suddenly all made perfect sense. It's one of those rare books that I kept thinking about even long after I'd finished reading it. I am well-familiar with the recent history and today's challenges of Estonia and Eastern Europe in general. This book opened yet another door to Pandora's Box. I know there are many "Zara's" in the world, but never once before had I a reason to stop and think WHO are they, and WHY are they where they are. Never before did I think that they, too, might just be your average girls with families, dreams and aspirations, and that perhaps they just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. And could someone like Aliide Truu be for real?! She certainly seems unbelievably believable. The more I think about it, the more I think that there may be just as many "Aliide's" as "Zara's" out there... Like they say, you shouldn't judge until you walk in their shoes, for everyone has their story and their reasons. I have no idea how much of this is fiction vs. real peoples' lives, but it is a damn well written book. And, with the right cast and director, it would make a great movie.

Sofi Oksanen's bestselling novel Purge is a masterpiece, and I don't say that lightly - I don't think I've ever reviewed a book that gripped me quite so thoroughly, especially as this type of novel isn't my usual cup of tea. Puhdistus ("Purge") started out as a play and was staged at the Finnish National Theatre in 2007 - out of the play grew Oksanen's third literary novel Puhdistus (2008). It became a runaway success, ranked #1 on the bestseller list for fiction in Finland when it was published. She was awarded the prestigious Finlandia Prize (2008) and the Runeberg Prize (2009) for Puhdistus. Oksanen is the youngest author ever to win the prestigious Finlandia Prize, which comes with a prize sum of 30.000 and ensures wide recognition and boosted sales in Finland at least. The Finlandia Award, awarded in early December, was the peak of a prize-winning season for Oksanen; since Purge was published she has been appointed Cristina of the Year (an academic prize from the University of Helsinki), received The Mika Waltari Award 2008, The Great Finnish Book Club Prize 2008, The Kalevi Jäntti Award 2008, The Runeberg Award 2008 and The Varjo-Finlandia Award 2009. In addition, Purge is shortlisted for the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2010 (Updated March 30th 2010 - Sofi Oksanen has won the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2010 - quote from the news release "The Finnish author Sofi Oksanen has won the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2010 for her work "Puhdistus." Sofi Oksanen (born 1977) shows her full strength with her third novel 'Puhdistus'. In a rich and expressive language she weaves a specific historical event, the Soviet occupation of Estonia, with a burning topical global contemporary theme - trafficking around the Baltic Sea. The Adjudication Committee wrote: "Sofi Oksanen's novel 'Puhdistus' ('Cleansing') takes place in two periods of time in Estonia, but its themes of love, treachery, power and powerlessness are timeless. 'Puhdistus' vibrates with tension: unspoken secrets and deeply shameful deeds stretch out across the book like a web and compel the reader to keep reading. With a rare precise and apposite language Oksanen describes what history does to individuals and history's pervasion in the present." The Literature Prize, worth DKK 350,000, will be presented to Sofi Oksanen at the beginning of November 2010 during the Nordic Council Session in Reykjavik. The Nordic Council Literature Prize has been awarded since 1962). I've struggled through another of Oksanen's books, "Stalin's Cows", reading the Finnish-language version (it isn't available in English), which was a bit of a struggle, and really enjoyed it. I was really happy to see Puhdistus (Purge) available in English, bought it, read it and was thoroughly surprised and impressed by just how good it is. And speaking as one who has struggled through reading a few books in Finnish, the translation into English by Lola Rogers is really well done. If you want to read a recent novel (