{"id":16364,"date":"2023-03-23T10:05:13","date_gmt":"2023-03-23T09:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finncult.be\/?p=16364"},"modified":"2023-03-23T10:08:52","modified_gmt":"2023-03-23T09:08:52","slug":"katja-kettus-yoperhonen-2015-on-the-finncultblx-bookshelf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finncult.be\/fi\/katja-kettus-yoperhonen-2015-on-the-finncultblx-bookshelf\/","title":{"rendered":"Katja Kettu’s Y\u00f6perhonen (2015) on the FinnCultBlx Bookshelf"},"content":{"rendered":"

This month, the #FinnCultBlxBookshelf series features Katja Kettu\u2019s<\/strong> Y\u00f6perhonen<\/em> (2015). The novel is set in the year 1937, when a young Finnish girl sets out to defect to the Soviet Union to be with her lover. A captivating premise to be sure –\u00a0 but what did our resident book critic Eppu have to say? Read on to find out!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Katja Kettu: Y\u00f6perhonen (2015)<\/h2>\n

Book number five from the FinnCultBlx Bookshelf is from Katja Kettu\u2019s<\/strong> 2015 novel Y\u00f6perhonen<\/em> (\u2018moth\u2019). Kettu is another well-respected Finnish author with a number of prestigious literary awards. Her books have also been translated into many languages \u2013 this one at least to Swedish, Danish, Estonian, German, Hungarian, and French.<\/p>\n

The story concerns a young girl living in the northern Finnish border zone towards the Soviet Union in 1937, Irga Malinen. She falls in love with a Soviet man and decides to defect across the border \u2013 in the winter and on skis! What happens is that instead of living a life in a Communist paradise, Irga gets interrogated as a possible double agent trying to undermine the Soviet government. She is condemned to a life in a prison camp in the Komi Republic, far away in the north.<\/p>\n

Her destiny was shared by many Finns who decided to search for a better life. Not everyone moved to Sweden or North America, there were many who went to the east. The immigration to the Soviet Union has been studied and talked about more only relatively recently \u2013 Kettu\u2019s book was probably spearheading the fictionalization of the phenomenon.<\/p>\n

It is also a story about friendship as Irga finds a sister in Elena, a Mari woman voluntarily in the Vorkuta camp. It is about love as Irga finds another love, Aleksei. It\u2019s about legacy as Irga\u2019s granddaughter Verna tries to figure out what really happened in her family\u2019s past. And perhaps most importantly it\u2019s about the human resilience and will to survive even in the most horrible conditions possible.<\/p>\n

Kettu\u2019s language is wild and inventive, sometimes challenging even to a native reader! It is poetic and beautiful, but sometimes irritating as common words seem to get very different meanings. I truly wonder how it has been possible to translate it satisfactorily.<\/p>\n

Intriguing and touching, though also challenging.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Eeva-Maria Viitanen (Eppu)<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Katja Kettu<\/h2>\n

Katja Kettu<\/strong> is an award-winning author, playwright, and animation producer. Much of her work explores cultural encounters in history especially from the perspectives of women. In 2011, she was awarded the Kalevi J\u00e4ntti Award<\/strong>, the Runeberg Prize<\/strong>, and the Thanks for the Book Award<\/strong> for her breakthrough novel K\u00e4til\u00f6 (Midwife).\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Follow Kettu on Instagram<\/a> to learn more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Katja Kettu\u2019s Y\u00f6perhonen (2015) is set in 1937, when a young Finnish girl defects to the Soviet Union for love. Here’s what our in-house book critic thought of the novel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":16365,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nKatja Kettu's Y\u00f6perhonen (2015) on the FinnCultBlx Bookshelf - Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This month, the #FinnCultBlxBookshelf series features Katja Kettu\u2019s Y\u00f6perhonen (2015). 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