Welcome to Litsy!

#readaroundtheworld #finland Published in the 1950‘s, but set during the WWII when Finland found itself trapped between Russia and Germany. Their stories are told from the point of view of the common soldiers who were undisciplined, starving and wearing rags while their German partners had nice uniforms, were very disciplined but nevertheless considered fools. Each war story is a kind of folktale and all are chilling in an off center way.

An odd little book! There is a sort of frame story: Joose, a soldier on leave decides to smuggle home a length of rope by winding it around his body with near deadly consequences. On the train home, he listens to the stories of the soldiers, introduced in a Canterbury-esque fashion. The novel also jumps to an event at the station in Joose‘s town for a chapter. The tall-tales are amusing but the disjointed structure is confusing to the modern ear.