purge by Sofi Oksanen - kind of like Dragon Tattoo but better IMO

[ElizabethHoover]

if you want to learn about Estonian history ( which is simply amazing tbh) and read a gripping thriller this is for you!
It starts a little complicated and there are many narratives but KEEP GOING

its ace

[ElizabethHoover]

www.amazon.co.uk/Purge-Sofi-Oksanen-ebook/dp/B004V9OCU0/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1429959830&sr=1-1&keywords=purge&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

[tormentil]

Wrote a review some time ago, not sure about the 'gripping thriller' bit, to me this book had greater depth:

'I chose this book on the strength of the blurb on the back cover where The Sunday Times wants to place Oksanen in 'the front rank of crime novelists' and The Times comments that 'Finland's hottest crime writer willl soon be as well known as Stieg Larsson'.

In my view, these endorsements do this book no favours - it is not a crime novel. Yes, there is a bit of psychological suspense, but this is secondary to the main story, which is about Aliide, wartime in Estonia, competition between sisters and how the past can catch up with you.

The novel opens in a small cottage in a forest in Estonia. It is a peasant's cottage and an old lady, Aliide lives there. On this particular morning, Aliide looks out of the window and sees that a young girl is lying on the grass. She takes her inside.

It turns out that the young girl, although Russian, has knowledge of Aliide. As Aliide has guilty secrets from the past,she is thrown into confusion about how to handle the situation - and the novel then travels back into the past, to wartime in Estonia, when people turned on each other in order to survive a punitive and dishonest regime and when loyalties were tested to their limits.

In summary, a dark, dense story that might better be described as a love story against a backdrop of Estonian history.'

[ElizabethHoover]

I knew that I wrote it's an " interesting book about Estonian history", fewer people would read it! But agree generally with what you have said

[Thenapoleonofcrime]

I've just bought this on this recommendation, let's see!

[Thenapoleonofcrime]

I read it last week whilst on a trip, I really enjoyed 90% of it, very gripping and interesting narrative, flipping between the past and the early 90's and drawing some sad parallels between the sexual abuse of women in these times. But the ending- I just didn't quite get it? All of a sudden, there were these reports, and they were dull, and I already knew who was an informer and I just didn't get the additional information or indeed emotional pull at the end I was expecting. Still a good read though and I may read again.