Children of the Cave by Virve Sammalkorpi

translated by Emily Jeremiah and Fleur Jeremiah



In 1819 a scientific expedition sets out from Paris to north-west Russia, in search of a lost tribe belonging to the Paphlagonian people. It's led by Professor Moltique of the Academie des Sciences, a veteran of many similar expeditions including one in which he claimed to have encountered a yeti. He's accompanied by Iax Agolasky, an enthusiastic young man, somewhat in awe of Moltique, who will take notes of everything they find, and, as the expedition is expected to last several years, nine or so men to take on the practical, physical work around their camp. They settle in to their remote camp, but it's several months before they find any signs of the people they've come to look for. At first they believe the creatures they've sighted are animals with odd human characteristics. But it's equally possible that they could be children with animal-type 'disfigurements'. Opinion in the camp is divided. Moltique swings between a variety of explanations, seeming to be searching for the one which will give him most fame. The men in general treat them as game to be hunted. Only Agolasky sees and responds to them as human beings. And now they've been discovered, what will happen to these Children of the Cave?



Presented mainly as extracts from diaries kept by Agolasky, with linking commentary from an editor, this novel examines the response of so-called civilised men to encountering others outside their norm - fear (often expressing itself in violence), curiosity, and the desire to profit from them dominate, with little fellow-feeling for the children. Agolasky alone treats them as humans, wants to befriend them and learn how and why they came to live here so far removed from other people.

Agolasky isn't a shining example though. He has a tendency to consider himself 'above' the practical members of the expedition, despising them, dismissing them as mere brutes, governed by animal passions, who could never appreciate his finer feelings. 
As the years pass the restraints of society slip away (Lord of the Flies style) with outbursts of violent anger among the men, leading Agolasky at times to fear for his life. 

As so often with Peirene's publications, the story is short but packs a punch - chilling reminder of what can happen if we begin to treat others, particularly those outside our tiny social circle, as less than us, of dehumanising others because they don't conform to our ideas of appearance and/or behaviour. It's something that is seen around us, on the news, on social media, all too often.


Maryom's review - 5 stars 
Publisher - Peirene Press 
Genre - Adult Literary Translated Fiction

White Hunger by Aki Ollikainen

 review by Maryom

In 1867 after several years of failed harvests, a great famine descended on Finland, threatening the lives of all but the wealthiest. As winter takes hold, Marja's husband lies dying of hunger. Realising that if they remain on the farm, both her and the two children will die too, Marja leaves him and heads south towards St Petersburg where, rumours say, there's bread for all. Others are on the road too, a rag-tag hoard of beggars desperately seeking aid, and not all places are welcoming to starving travellers. Moved on from one place to another, Marja refuses to give up hope but keeps doggedly plodding on.
Meanwhile in the city, life goes on much as it always did - senators squabble over whose plan is the best to deal with the crisis, the rich refuse to help out, and Teo, a doctor, continues his work among the taverns and brothels of the seedier districts.
A chance meeting of Teo and Marja on the road leads to the first signs of hope....

White Hunger is a tale of endurance and hope. Marja's determination to continue despite the odds stacked against her, her constant belief that one day they will reach their goal and it will welcome them with open arms and full baskets of bread, is inspiring but heart-rending as her quest seems doomed from the start. Living hand to mouth, relying entirely on the kindness of strangers, her spirit seems indomitable even though starvation causes her mind to wander and her body to collapse. The reactions of the people she meets en route are understandable - everyone is suffering from the famine and, unless you're among the cosseted wealthy classes, to give even the smallest amount of bread or gruel to a beggar, may mean your own death.
Teo's experiences are different. Living in the city, he's comparatively sheltered from the dire effects of the famine, but he comes to realise that the problem of beggars roaming the countryside in search of food can't be solved by those like himself who have little real understanding of the plight of the people - a situation seen today in the attitudes of governments towards the poor and refugees.

It's a story that takes the reader to unknown places - with our centrally-heated houses and shop-bought food we're hardly likely to encounter such conditions, but the unrelenting frozen landscape slowly seeps into even the well-fed, armchair-snuggled reader's mind. I could easily imagine the frozen feet and hands, the soggy clothing, the tedium of taking to the road each day, the exhaustion at the end of it.
The story does end on a happier note with the return of warmer days in Spring and the natural hopefulness that comes with it, but there's a feeling of a nation waking from a long nightmare and still being haunted by it.

As a slight aside - Although circumstances are very different I found a lot of similarity between Marja and Izolda, the heroine of Hanna Krall's Chasing the King of Hearts published by Peirene a couple of years ago. Both women show a determination to cling on to every last scrap of hope and persevere through adversities, even though their goal seems to move further and further away.




 Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Peirene Press
Genre - Adult Literary Fiction, translated fiction 

translated from the Finnish by Fleur Jeremiah and Emily Jeremiah

Mr Darwin's Gardener by Kristina Carlson

review by Maryom

A postmodern Victorian novel about faith, knowledge and our inner needs.
The late 1870s, the Kentish village of Downe. The villagers gather in church one rainy Sunday. Only Thomas Davies stays away. The eccentric loner, father of two and a grief-stricken widower, works as a gardener for the notorious naturalist, Charles Darwin. He shuns religion. But now Thomas needs answers. What should he believe in? And why should he continue to live?



Mr Darwin's Gardener is the story of not merely one man but of a whole community. Set in the late 19th century when Darwin's theory of evolution is challenging the accepted view, it shows the dilemmas that must have been felt the world over as people struggled to adjust their view of creation. The village of Downe is a sleepy provincial place - where everyone knows their neighbours' business and an accident with a  horse and cart is a great event. The inhabitants are traditional in outlook; believers in Sunday church attendance and meting our their own rough justice. The women gossip over their charity work or at their book club; the men set the world to rights at the inn. An atheist from far-away Wales, Thomas Davies, Mr Darwin's Gardener, is an outsider in many ways. He has been widowed for 3 years but is still struggling to overcome his grief and carry on living. His extreme anguish at the time of his wife's death, seen in the burning of her bed and clothes, is beyond the comprehension of his more measured neighbours. Thomas doesn't believe in God, putting his faith in Mr Darwin and his scientific principles but can these give comfort to a grieving man?

The latest offering from Peirene press is something slightly different, an odd quirky book, a sort of cross between Cranford, Under Milk Wood and The Waves. The story is told, as stream of consciousness fragmented thoughts, through the voices of the villagers of Downe - and also the birds that watch their comings and goings. It gives a slightly fragmented feel to the story-telling, a bit like having several people talking to you at once, but once you've caught the rhythm of it, you see the world from inside their minds.


To me, it seemed like I could only see the shape of the novel once I'd reached the end. Couple that with the fact that outside events had made my reading scrappy and interrupted, and I decided to do an unusual thing - read it again straight away! The second reading was far better. I understood and could appreciate how the story was told from multiple points of view. Putting it down frequently is NOT the way appreciate it.

Maryom's review - 4.5 stars
Publisher - Peirene Press
Genre - Adult Literary Fiction

Translated from the Finnish by Emily Jeremiah and Fleur Jeremiah.

Buy Mr Darwin's Gardener from Amazon or check out the Peirene website for subscription details

The Brothers by Asko Sahlberg

Finnish Epic

review by Maryom

The Brothers is the first offering in Peirene Press' Year of the Small Epic, the tale of Henrik and Erik - two brothers different in almost every way: one is courageous and adventurous, going off to see the world and make his fortune; the other is steadier, the type to stay at home and tend the family farm; one appears to have everything he could want; the other is thwarted at every turn. Through accident, the brothers found themselves on opposite sides as the Russians and Swedes fought over Finland, and as the story opens Henrik returns home for the first time after the ending of the war - the perfect dramatic set-up for an opening up of old wounds and long-held grudges on, yes, an epic scale!

The Brothers is another wonderful offering from Peirene Press - one which might top Portrait of The Mother as a Young Woman by Friedrich Christian Delius as my favourite.
A "small epic" seems a curious oxymoronic thing but although The Brothers is short on pages it's certainly not short on plot or characterisation. In just over 120 pages Sahlberg brings to life a family drama of long simmering resentment, sexual tension, financial mismanagement and long hidden secrets. It's rather like watching an intensely focused, dramatically packed 90 minute film, instead of the slow progression of a 12 part TV series. I loved the depth of characterisation and scope of the action achieved in such a small space.
There's something reminiscent of Greek tragedy to the story in the inevitable working out of fate and also in the presentation - each character talks directly to the reader, revealing his/her thoughts, desires and secrets and the action is seen through their eyes. Yet the opening sequence has all the hallmarks of a Western - the crunch of footsteps as Henrik approaches, the measured step, his slow appraisal of his surroundings, for all the world like a gunslinger walking up the main street of a Wild West town. Once you start to think "western" a lot of other things fit in - the horse, the girl, the squabbles over land -perhaps it just underlines the timeless quality of the story.

Translated from the Finnish by Emily Jeremiah and Fleur Jeremiah

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Peirene Press
Genre - Adult Literary Fiction, translated fiction, Finland

Other reviews; Iris on Books , Tony's Reading List