The Burnt-Out Town of Miracles

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 show more 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. show less

I read this during the coldest December on record in the UK. The narrator is 'the village idiot', but of course he isn't. Trees, forests, frost and COLD, all enveloping the insane chaos inside a war that most of the world doesn't even know took place. At first I thought i wouldn't like it, but it captivated me, right through to the heart-rending, but possibly redemptive, ending. Odd to learn that the author is not Finnish, but Norwegian.

The cover of this book states 'As chosen by The Times Book Group'. This is a group I have never heard of, but I'm guessing they don't sit around discussing Jackie Collins novels. Not surprisingly this was more cerebral than entertaining. It follows Timo, a Finnish woodsman who refuses to leave his town as it is evacuated and burned ahead of the Russian invasion of 1939. The book looks at Timo's isolation as he is treated with suspicion by the invading forces, and later by his own countrymen.

The text is frequently repetitive, and a little distant, a great deal less sensationalist than other 'war is hell' -type books. At one point, for example, a group of characters sit down to rest on what they think is a snow-covered log, but which show more turns out to be a stack of corpses, but this episode was narrated with a feeling of detachment.

The prose is heavy with meaning, and whilst I found the story informative I am sure I didn't discern all of its subtleties. Definitely a task for the Times Book Group! show less

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.

I quite liked this book! I'd been reading and reading about the Winter War and the battle of Suomussalmi in non-fiction books, but it was nice to find a story that put a human face to all the facts. I found it to be an engaging read, though it didn't quite grab me as much as I'd hoped (maybe it has to do with the translation; I'm not sure) Overall, a good book. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in the Winter War.

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.

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.