Purge by Sofi Oksanen / Review

PURGE

by Sofi Oksanen

The novel was notably better than the European one in 2010 and it seems to me this novel really interesting and good, like the author, to say that this novel focuses on the Soviet world of Estonia and the dialogue between the young woman and Zara’s wife and the Elder Aliide is simply wonderful, a link is established through the pages, set in 1992, but among this story run other parallel family in the 50s, as well as the depraved life of Zara in Berlin, but to me taste is a surprising and absorbing novel where human relationships shine above all argumentation, highly recommended.

This is a psychological thriller set in rural Estonia. There are only two major characters. The first is an elderly woman who, as we learn her story, is the textbook definition of a survivor She been through WW II, starvation, rape, torture, a dead husband and lost family. Her only remaining family members, a sister and a niece, were exiled to far eastern Russia, thousands of miles away, because the sister was suspected of aiding and sheltering her husband, an anti-Soviet freedom fighter. 

The older woman had been secretly in love with her brother-in-law for years and now with the sister exiled, maybe she can finally have him to herself if he’s still alive and if he takes the risk of reappearing. These events happened during the Soviet occupation of Estonia, then the German occupation, and then the Soviets again, and each time the political domination changed there were retaliations and round-ups of traitors and freedom-fighters. The retaliation continues today because some villagers remember the older lady cooperating with one side or the other and they harass her by killing her dog, throwing rocks at her house and setting fires. She lives in constant fear for her safety.

Times are still tough. These rural folks are almost in a subsistence life, raising chickens and growing and canning most of what they have to eat. Enter the second character, a young woman running away from sex slavery, being chased by two goons. Believe me, the young woman has come to the right place for protection because you want this elderly lady on your side! She pulls no punches. The elderly lady and the young woman are loaded with secrets and while the young woman lives with her they begin a back-and-forth dance of how much they can reveal to each other. 

There’s a surprising twist at the end by which we learn that this novel of hardship, survival and resilience turns out to be just as much a novel about obsessive love. 

This novel, Purge, is the author’s best known and most awarded work. Sofi Oksanen grew up in central Finland to a Finnish father and an Estonian mother. Although set in Estonia, dreams of Helinki, Finland, only 50 miles away across the Gulf of Finland, dominate the economy and the thoughts of the locals. This is a great book. I’m putting it on my favorites. 

WEEDJEE