Purge

February 1, 2010
Oksanen's uneven first novel to be translated into English follows one family through three generations during the Soviet occupation of the Baltics. In 1992, Aliide Truu finds a ragged and abused young woman collapsed near her rural Estonian home. The girl, Zara, is supposedly fleeing from her husband, and Aliide, an aged widow, whisks Zara inside and offers her shelter and sustenance. But when Zara shows Aliide an old picture of Aliide and her sister, Ingel, it becomes clear that Zara's choice in sanctuary wasn't coincidental. The contours of each of their lives are gradually revealed: Zara's path from being a poor Russian teenager to a fugitive sex worker (depictions of her working life are especially graphic and lean toward gratuitous) with a violent pimp on her trail; Aliide and Ingel navigating the beginning of the Soviet occupation as they settle into their adult lives in the 1940s, plagued by an oppressive regime and the tortuous demands of jealousy, deceit, and love. The translation has some rough spots, and the narrative can be heavier on history than humanity.

February 15, 2010
Two refugees of Estonia's Soviet occupation collide with one another.

Likely driven by the new thirst for European thrillers in the vein of Steig Larsson, this wonderfully subtle thriller by one of Finland's young emerging talents has found its way to English-speaking shores. The Finnish-Estonian novelist and playwright's American debut captures both the tragic consequences of one of Europe's biggest conflicts and the universal horrors that war inflicts on women. The novel opens with Aliide Truu, a woman of a certain age living a quiet life in 1992:"It was quiet, the way it's quiet in late summer in a dying Estonian village—a neighbor's rooster crowed, that was all. The silence had been peculiar that year—expectant, yet at the same time like the aftermath of a storm." But underneath Aliide's placid exterior lies the heart of a survivor, one who isn't pleased to find a half-starved runaway in her front yard. Her motherly instincts are almost nil."She ought to get a new dog. Or two," writes Oksanen of her heroine's initial reaction. In time, her new ward reveals her story—the girl is Zara, a sex-trafficking casualty on the run from the Russian mafia. But Zara's only possessions open up another mystery: a card with the Estonian address of the place her grandmother was born, and an old photograph of two young girls signed,"For Aliide, from her sister." From these thin strands, Oksanen masterfully weaves together the tale of Aliide's treacherous family history in the late 1940s, with Zara's unspeakable treatment at the hands of her tormentors, and ultimately Aliide's part in Zara's salvation. With a tone somewhere between Ian McEwan's Atonement and the best of the current crop of European crime novelists, this bitter gem promises great things from the talented Oksansen.

A family history like many family histories—neither pretty, victimless or straightforward.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

February 15, 2010
A popular Finnish writer, Oksanen makes her American debut with this riveting tale of two women struggling to survive in Soviet-occupied Estonia. Zara, on the run from ruthless sex traffickers, appears at the home of Aliide, a suspicious older woman. Whether Aliide will help the desperate Zara is only one of many intrigues in the novel. As their histories are revealed, we learn why Aliide is despised by her neighbors, what happened to her family members, what role Aliide played in their fates, and how Aliide and Zara are connected. Zara's tale is shocking and disturbingly graphic. But at the heart of this story is Aliide's jealousy of her more beautiful sister and her desire for her sister's husband. The book keeps us in suspense wondering how far Aliide will go to get what she wantsand whether she will redeem herself when given a second chance with the appearance of Zara. Oksanen adeptly handles dual story lines and multiple points of view as she keeps us turning pages to reach the dramatic conclusion. VERDICT Highly recommended for fans of classic Russian writers like Tolstoy and Pasternak, as well as those who enjoy a contemporary tale of lust and betrayal. [See "Prepub Exploded," "BookSmack!", December 3, 2009.]Evelyn Beck, Piedmont Technical Coll., Greenwood, SC

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2010
In Oksanens first novel translated into English, mystery surrounds the grimy, disheveled girl secretive Aliide finds lying in the yard of her house in the Estonian countryside that is full of homemade elixirs and dried herbs, flowers, and fruits, homegrown or from the nearby woods. The girl, Zara, speaks an archaic, provincial Estonian yellow and moth-eaten . . . with a strange smell of death in it, which leads Aliide to suspect shes connected with thieves, possibly those plundering the woods for lumber to sell to the West. In 1992 Estonia, anythings possible, and though Aliide wants to distance herself from Zaras repulsive, familiar smell of fear, she opens her door to the bedraggled girl, despite her better judgment. Thus, the stage is set for reopening wounds from the decades of Estonias post-WWII Soviet occupation, when camp survivors streamed in, eyes averted, and refugees disappeared into the mouths of the new factories. Maps help orient readers, who will dive into this taut, well-crafted tale of Europes still living post-war pain.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)