Shortlisted for the Whistler Independent Book Awards, Silences: A Novel of the 1918 Finnish Civil War is a story that crosses continents and generations.
From the Back Cover
Labour Day, 1955.
Near a creek in Port Arthur, Ontario, an man's body hangs at the end of a rope. The story of the body, and its missing shoe, begins in Finland, decades earlier and an ocean away.
In January, 1918, civil war breaks out in Finland. Jussi Mantere and his friends, the Solbakken brothers--Anders, Karl, and Ivor, known as Rabbit--as well as Karl's wife, Viktoria, are swept into the fighting. The war rages for months and the country is laid waste. When peace is declared, the price of mending the fractured country is silence: to heal and forget, both victor and vanquished, White and Red, are asked not to speak of the war.
In the ensuing years, Jussi and other survivors immigrate to Canada, bringing their Silence with them. In Port Arthur's Summer of 1955, events set in motion in 1918 come to haunt Jussi's family. A stranger--or is it someone Jussi knows?--threatens the peace and safety of his family. Jussi must decide whether and how to break his silence about the past and its horrors, and spare his grandson the bitter burden of generations-old resentments.
About the Author
Roy Blomstrom, born in Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay), Ontario, is the son of Finland-Swede parents who lived through the Finnish Civil War and later emigrated to Canada. He lives and writes in Shuniah, Ontario, just outside Thunder Bay.
Praise for Silences: A Novel of the 1918 Finnish Civil War
"Epic and intimate in scope and execution.... This is a splendid, engaging
historical novel. Highly recommended."
—Michael Sobota, Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal
“Very absorbing, highly
recommended.”
—H. Lewis Allways, reviewed at Amazon.com
Click here for a Q&A with Roy Blomstrom
Click here for a Reader's Guide to Silences
