Purge (English Edition)

Purge is a very impressive book about the tragic history of an Estonian family in the 20th century, which is characterized by war, occupation, violence, betrayal and humiliation. The book begins with an elderly woman in western Estonia finding a young woman in front of her house in the woods in 1992. She is maltreated and abused. It turns out, that she’s the granddaughter of her sister, who grew up in Siberia. But how did it happen that this young woman named Zara shows up so suddenly? And why is Aliide, the elderly woman, so suspicious? What is her dark past? The book quickly caught on for me. In constantly changing perspectives and time jumps between 1936-1951 and 1991/1992, the story of Zara and Aliide is rolled up. What I liked best about the book was the way Oksanen creates an atmosphere when people meet each other. The two women are watching each other and nobody wants to reveal too much of their secrets. Oksanen writes powerful, vivid and ruthless, especially when it comes to sexual violence. No book for the faint-hearted. It appears in the beginning that the roles of good and evil as well as victims and perpetrators are clearly distributed, this impression blurs more and more with the increasing retrospectives. Victims also become perpetrators when the suffering lasts too long. The novel is an adaptation of a stage play by Oksanen. This is quite unusual, but interesting. Oksanen describes a scene like in a play. It serves less as an epic narrative about the history of Estonia in times of oppression. But it is not a women's book, as some write in their reviews. The two protagonists are female, but this is by no means a book written exclusively for a particular gender. Ultimately, it is a book about longings and obsessions that, if not fulfilled, can have a negative impact on a whole family until its demise. Recommended.

Purge is a very impressive book about the tragic history of an Estonian family in the 20th century, which is characterized by war, occupation, violence, betrayal and humiliation. The book begins with an elderly woman in western Estonia finding a young woman in front of her house in the woods in 1992. She is maltreated and abused. It turns out, that she’s the granddaughter of her sister, who grew up in Siberia. But how did it happen that this young woman named Zara shows up so suddenly? And why is Aliide, the elderly woman, so suspicious? What is her dark past? The book quickly caught on for me. In constantly changing perspectives and time jumps between 1936-1951 and 1991/1992, the story of Zara and Aliide is rolled up. What I liked best about the book was the way Oksanen creates an atmosphere when people meet each other. The two women are watching each other and nobody wants to reveal too much of their secrets. Oksanen writes powerful, vivid and ruthless, especially when it comes to sexual violence. No book for the faint-hearted. It appears in the beginning that the roles of good and evil as well as victims and perpetrators are clearly distributed, this impression blurs more and more with the increasing retrospectives. Victims also become perpetrators when the suffering lasts too long. The novel is an adaptation of a stage play by Oksanen. This is quite unusual, but interesting. Oksanen describes a scene like in a play. It serves less as an epic narrative about the history of Estonia in times of oppression. But it is not a women's book, as some write in their reviews. The two protagonists are female, but this is by no means a book written exclusively for a particular gender. Ultimately, it is a book about longings and obsessions that, if not fulfilled, can have a negative impact on a whole family until its demise. Recommended.