Purge
READING GROUP Reading Around the World: E is for Estonia
Wednesday 12th February 2025 at 6:15pm
This event has now passed
We are travelling to Estonia for the next book in our Reading Around the World shared reading.
Originally published in 2008, this paperback edition was offered in 2011, translated from Finnish to English by Lola Rogers. Purge was written by Finnish-Estonian writer Sofi Oksanen, and has been translated into thirty-eight languages. It is Oksanen’s third Finnish-language novel and is based upon her original play of the same name.
Deep in an Estonian forest, two women, one young, one old, are hiding.
Zara is a prostitute and a murderer, on the run from brutal captors – men who know how to punish a woman. Aliide offers refuge but not safety: she has her own criminal secrets – traitorous crimes of passion and revenge committed long ago, during the country’s brutal Soviet years.
Both women have survived lives of abuse. But this time their survival depends on revealing the one thing history has taught them to keep safely hidden: the truth.
A haunting, intimate and gripping story of suspicion, betrayal and retribution against a backdrop of Soviet oppression and European war.
We are looking forward to reading this novel and to see how much of Estonia we will experience.
Please contact us to book in if you would like to join our reading group session to review this book. As a reminder, our Reading Group sessions tend to reach full attendance capacity, so booking in beforehand is essential, please.
The book is available to reserve from our bookshop HERE.