Imagine that your native land is invaded not once, but several times by opponents who are much more powerful and ruthless. In the first invasion, tens of thousands of your nations finest minds are deported to camps thousands of miles away. The next invasion is by another opponent who to win your favor, executes tens of thousands of your fellow citizens who made the mistake of being born into a different religion. To complete the job of cleansing your land, many of your neighbors to worked with the first invader are also executed. A couple of years later, the first invader returns and again, executes or deports your fellow citizens who co-operated with the second invader. Fast forward two generations and the first invader is finally expelled but during that time, everyone who has lived under the expelled regime has lived, worked or in some manner supported the hated invader.
Whom do you trust? Who was a spy or informer for the invader? Who was married to someone who profited from working with the invader? Will the invader return? Is the new system honest or will it be staffed by those who worked for the invader?
Sofi Oksanen, a Finnish- Estonian playwright and novelist is now published in twenty-nine countries and has written a novel that looks at those questions and others. An elderly woman is taunted by young boys who throw rocks at her house on her old dying farm. Why? Did she collaborate with the hated invaders? Was she an informer? What is her secret? Then, a young woman in fancy city clothes appears in her yard and for the rest of the book, each mentally dances with the other, prying and gradually learning the truth that binds the two.
The story will make the reader question how does a nation which, like the nations in Europe formerly occupied by the Soviet Union, begin the healing process and acceptance of the challenges generated by the past. Who, having lived for decades under a repressive police state is free from guilt and is there an acceptable line beyond one should not have crossed? At the same time, there is a valid call for Justice and who will be the ones to carry out such measures as are set? These questions and others are not often discussed by those who have studied totalitarian states or even whose which have not gone to that extreme. The amazing thing is that it appears that overall, those nations which have suffered have found a way to deal with the past and have arrived at a way of moving forward without using the fearsome methods that were used on them.
