Are there two sides to every story?
On January 23, 1918, the Finnish Civil War became real, in a whole new way, to the residents of the village of Gamlaby. Karl Solbakken had begun to help the widowed owner of Swensson's store after her husband had been killed by a small group of Red Finns.
That same small group of raiders--all brothers named Myllysilta--went to the Mantere farm to hunt down and execute its residents. However, Jussi Mantere and his father weren't there--only the mother remained. The raiders killed her.
Jussi came home before the raiders were finished. Recognizing quickly what had happened, he picked off the rest of the raiders and took the bodies into the village of Gamlaby.
Of course this incident affected Jussi and his father. But who else witnessed the killings and aftermath? What if Jussi hadn't killed ALL the raiders in the area--what if one of the brothers survived? And what if the Myllysilta brothers weren't the type of people to forgive and forget, no matter how many decades passed?
Readers of SILENCES: A NOVEL OF THE 1918 FINNISH CIVIL WAR have already seen one perspective on the way silences surrounding the Finnish Civil War played out decades later in Canada.
But there's more to the unhappy, violent tie between the Manteres and the Myllysiltas. Stay tuned for a new book that tells another side to the story! Coming this Spring!
