Purge
A Novel
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3.5 • 11 Ratings
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
An award-winning novel of two women dogged by secrets buried in Estonia's shameful Soviet past—"[A] bold combination of history, politics, and suspense" (The Sunday Times).
When Aliide Truu, an older woman living alone in the Estonian countryside, finds a disheveled girl huddled in her front yard, she suppresses her misgivings and offers her shelter. Zara is a young sex-trafficking victim on the run from her captors, but a photo she carries with her soon makes it clear that her arrival at Aliide's home is no coincidence.
Survivors both, Aliide and Zara engage in a complex plot of suspicion and revelation as they attempt to discover each other's motives. As their stories come to light, they reveal a tragic family drama of rivalry, lust, and loss that played out during the worst years of Estonia's Soviet occupation.
"A stirring and humane work of art" by the acclaimed Finnish-Estonian author Sofi Oksanen, Purge won numerous awards including the Finlandia Prize and the Prix Femina (The New Republic).
"A stunner." —The Plain Dealer
"[A] taut, well-crafted tale of Europe's still living post-war pain." —Booklist
"A dark, harrowing, and at times difficult read that wrings every ounce of emotion from the reader." —The Bookseller
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Oksanen's uneven first novel to be translated into English follows one family through three generations during the Soviet occupation of the Baltics. In 1992, Aliide Truu finds a ragged and abused young woman collapsed near her rural Estonian home. The girl, Zara, is supposedly fleeing from her husband, and Aliide, an aged widow, whisks Zara inside and offers her shelter and sustenance. But when Zara shows Aliide an old picture of Aliide and her sister, Ingel, it becomes clear that Zara's choice in sanctuary wasn't coincidental. The contours of each of their lives are gradually revealed: Zara's path from being a poor Russian teenager to a fugitive sex worker (depictions of her working life are especially graphic and lean toward gratuitous) with a violent pimp on her trail; Aliide and Ingel navigating the beginning of the Soviet occupation as they settle into their adult lives in the 1940s, plagued by an oppressive regime and the tortuous demands of jealousy, deceit, and love. The translation has some rough spots, and the narrative can be heavier on history than humanity.
