Purge - by Sofi Oksanen (Paperback)

About the Book

The winner of Finland's two most prestigious literary awards--the Finlandia and the Runeberg--"Purge" is a breathtakingly suspenseful tale of two women dogged by their own shameful past and the dark, unspoken history that binds them.

Book Synopsis

An international sensation, Sofi Oksanen's award-winning novel Purge is a breathtakingly suspenseful tale of two women dogged by their own shameful pasts and the dark, unspoken history that binds them.

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 arithmetic of suspicion and revelation to distill each other's motives; gradually, their stories emerge, the culmination of a tragic family drama of rivalry, lust, and loss that played out during the worst years of Estonia's Soviet occupation.

Sofi Oksanen establishes herself as one the most important voices of her generation with this intricately woven tale, whose stakes are almost unbearably high from the first page to the last. Purge is a fiercely compelling and damning novel about the corrosive effects of shame, and of life in a time and place where to survive is to be implicated.

Review Quotes

"A bravura work, deeply engaged with [Estonia's] knotted history, sparing but potent in its use of irony, and containing an empathic treatment of all the miserable choices Estonians faced during their periods of oppression. . . . Oksanen has crafted a stirring and humane work of art."--Jacob Silverman, The New Republic

"A stunner . . . [Purge is] a compelling look at what we do to survive."--Karen R. Long, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)

"Purge is that very rare thing, a sheer masterpiece . . . A marvel . . . I hope that everyone in the world who knows how to read, reads Purge."--Nancy Huston, author of Fault Lines

"Oksanen's fluid, unadorned prose gives shape to unspeakable violence and illuminates the process of remembering."--The L Magazine (Top 10 Books of 2010)

"A captivating book about two women with dark secrets and an underlying connection. . . . Oksanen skillfully weaves histories together to form a rich, complex nove."--Shelf Awareness (Top 10 Books of 2010)

"[A] bold combination of history, politics, and suspense."--Sunday Times (UK)

"This is a novel of big issues--the sex industry, the Soviet annexation of Estonia after World War II, the Chernobyl disaster, the tumultuous years immediately after the breakup of the USSR. It's a lot to take on, but Oksanen manages to keep her focus tight . . . handling a complicated, tricky story with deftness and skill. Purge is a serious book, but not a dour one. It has a thriller's air of suspense . . . but there is a tragic core to this story that will reward closer attention."--Bookslut

"[A] taut, well-crafted tale of Europe's still living post-war pain."--Booklist

"Sofi Oksanen's disturbing, riveting novel Purge . . . is a jolt. Set in 1992, only three years removed from the joyful optimism undammed by the demolition of the Berlin Wall, Purge burns through the mists to show how decades of debasement have twisted society in the former USSR into one characterized by crime and cruelty. Oksanen couches this larger theme within a tight, unconventional crime novel, one punctuated by dreadful silences, shameful revelations and repellent intimacies. By examining the toll of history on a close, personal level, Oksanen . . . makes the cost of mere survival sickeningly palpable. . . . Evoking both noir and fairy tales . . . Purge is an engrossing read."--NPR.org

"Power and loss are the themes of Sofi Oksanen's gripping novel, Purge. . . . This is not a book to read last thing at night. It reminds us of things that we would rather forget, that happened while the world looked away. It is the story of millions of people forced to make impossible choices, who had their lives and happiness stolen, and then survived only to find new bullies and cheats taking the place of the old ones. . . . Bears comparison with the excellent novels of Marina Lewycka, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian and the semi-sequel Two Caravans."--The Economist online ("Essential Reading")

"A dark, harrowing, and at times difficult read that wrings every ounce of emotion from the reader."--The Bookseller

"This wonderfully subtle thriller . . . captures both the tragic consequences of one of Europe's biggest conflicts and the universal horrors that war inflicts on women. With a tone somewhere between Ian McEwan's Atonement and the best of the current crop of European crime novelists, this bitter gem promises great things from the talented Oksanen."--Kirkus Reviews

"Purge is a truly stunning novel, both heartbreaking and optimistic. Through the stories of two women, Sofi Oksanen shows us the history of a country t