Fiction from Finland discussion

Hi all fans of Finnish fiction!

I wanted to form this group so that we could share our thoughts on Finnish novels, and so I'd like to suggest our first read: 'When the Doves Disappeared' by Sofi Oksanen. This is the latest novel by the award-winning Finnish author and is coming out in the UK tomorrow. So it's literally fresh off the press! When the Doves Disappeared

I suggest we have this read by 30th of June to give everyone enough time.

Who's up for the first reading challenge?

Yep, I've reserved it at my library.

I'm in =)

Great stuff! Xx

I'll give it a go but I'm a bit rubbish at deadlines! I'd like to support this group whilst you get it off the ground though so I'll do my very best!

Catherine wrote: "I'll give it a go but I'm a bit rubbish at deadlines! I'd like to support this group whilst you get it off the ground though so I'll do my very best!"

Catherine, please don't worry! If you have time to discuss do so, or come back to the discussion when you're finished the book. I set the group for reading enjoyment not for homework! It's all very free-form and casual here....

How are you getting on with When the Doves Disappeared? I'm on page 269 and almost afraid to read on...

Finished it yesterday!

I wasn't blown away by it. The setting and the era of the novel was interesting, but I thought that Oksanen didn't do a great job of explaining the reasons behind her characters' actions, especially those of Edgar and Juudit, who seemed to be put into the novel for the sake of jazzing up the plot a little, rather than reflect actual humans with personalities and feelings. I didn't really like the structure and I found the switch from Roland's first person narrative to the third person narrative, back and forth between the 40s and 60s, to be choppy and distracting. I got to a point where it wasn't confusing anymore, but just boring. Purge was way better.

I found is very confusing too. There were a lots of supporting characters who were never really expanded or explained (why have so many people at the Simson farm?). also I was expecting the childhood relationship between Edgar and Roland to be explained at the end - explaining why Edgar behaved as he did. Why did Roland's mother prefer Edgar to Roland? If not part of the development why mention it at all?

In the end, like Gretel, I found large parts of it quite boring and it wasn't lifted by any drama at the end (which was a bit of a dull thud rather than the bang I expected).

I was glad to read about WWII from the point of view of somewhere I'd not read about before. It was the excellent historical setting that kept me going.

Thanks for your great views, Gretel and Catherine. I apologies for my tardiness with this group - for some reason I do not get the notifications when people have posted and thought no-one had yet had time to read the book.

I am veering towards liking the book much more than you two did (as you see I gave it 5 stars). I too got a little frustrated along the way with the changing time periods, but I think the harrowing details of the war and atrocities was so well described, I could forgive a bit of lack of detail. I agree, however, that purge was much better.