Possibly my ‘discovery’ of the year: a Norwegian writer with a past as a street tug, who has an historical interest and an original voice.

In this historical novel set in famous Suomussalmi, Finland, during the winter war, he gives us a unique character: Timo, the lumberjack. Timo is not considered 100% sane by his fellow villagers, and not only because he wants to stay while the rest is being evacuated by the Finnish army. The houses are set to be burnt: the Finnish army wants to put up a stern defence against the invading army. Timo runs around and prevents some houses from being burnt (also the house where he stays in the basement – the village store).

Once the Russians have arrived it is winter, and hence they need wood. Timo slowly but surely ingratiates himself with his new masters, especially with a dubious character who acts as an interpreter. Skilfully chopping wood, he gains the Russians’ trust, and gets to command a lumberjack battalion of odd balls: two gypsy Jewish brothers, a reluctant teacher who tells funny stories, a smallish tug, a Karelian Russian peasant who speaks a smattering of Finnish. Gradually his fellow group members come to respect Timo, who takes them into one of the few houses that is still functional.

Meanwhile the battle turns from bad to worse for the Russians (the famous motti battle, though we do not hear anything about this in the novel). The Russians start to suspect Timo of informing his fellow countrymen. And so Timo gets tortured. Yet Timo is stoic and the Russians still need wood, and so he is put back to work. Conditions worsen. When they go out logging they normally get protection by a detail of Russian soldiers, but no longer. It gets colder. They escape, along the lake Northward trying to reach Timo’s farm. They run out of food, it gets really cold, they hide in a boatshed: realizing they will freeze to death, Timo in his desperation sets the shed alight, while they all lie outside it in a circle. This is how they are discovered and caught by a Finnish detail.

Now the situation reverses – people flock back into town, Timo is a suspect again – how did he survive those Russians? Slowly Timo resumes his work, this time for Finnish troops and returning inhabitants. Also his old Russian gang returns to him, as POWs, to resume their work as lumberjacks. Towards the end of the war, they decide to escape and go in hiding in Timo’s farm, which is still in tact. Then they spread out, each going his own way. Timo and Heikko (a Finnish mate he gained when the Finnish troops returned) jointly construct a new farm for Heikko on the border. During the continuation war, this farm once more gets abandoned and burnt down by Russians. After the war they rebuild a farm for Heikko.

Timo slowly resumes his old life as Wood cutter for Suomussalmi citizens, while the town rediscovers itself as the heroic place where the Fins beat the Russians. Timo is reticent to explain what really happened, despite the fact that he is the only Fin who can relate what happened behind the Russian lines. He occasionally hears about the fate of one of his fellow lumberjacks. Suomussalmi basks in the attention it receives post-war as battle site.

What makes the story exceptional, besides the sparse, crystal clear style of writing, is the mundane resilience and everyday survival strategies applied by Timo, the village madman, who manages to pull through everything. His kind of heroic survival does not befit any patriotic war story that likes to paint a black-and-white perspective. Rather Timo and his gang pass through the grey zones, that will be rendered oblivious after the war. Remarkable war novel. ( )

A Norwegian writer. Takes place at the begnning of the war, in 1939, in Finland. One simple man, Timo, refuses to flee his town from the advances of the Russian army. ( )

Un récit de la guerre d'Hiver, en 1939, tandis que la Finlande combat l'invasion russe. Un bûcheron simple d'esprit (mais qui ne le semble jamais) protège d'autres finnois prisonniers. Beau, calme, légèrement ambigu. ( )

A Norwegian writer. Takes place at the begnning of the war, in 1939, in Finland. One simple man, Timo, refuses to flee his town from the advances of the Russian army. ( )

On a most unseasonably hot Easter weekend I read this novel about the Winter War in a Finnish town with people freezing to death and snow and ice and frostbite and survival. It is very stark and strangely moving, this tale of men.