Merja Mäki. Before the Birds

Finland is attacked by an aggressive and much more powerful neighbour. Alli, who was sent by her parents to study with a witch doctor, escapes Russian bombs and makes her way across the ice of Lake Ladoga to her home island. She wants not only to escape the war but also to become a fisherwoman, just as her father was a fisherman. However, the war changes everything — her native Karelia is occupied by a brutal enemy, and she and her family have to evacuate to the west of the country. Unfamiliar places and people await her as well as a difficult job in a military hospital. Will the daughter of a fisherman, accustomed to the spacious and windswept Lake Ladoga, be able to take root in a new place? And what makes a person feel at home — familiar landscapes or love for a dear one?

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