House of Orphans by Helen Dunmore - first published 2006
16 year old Eevi lives in a Finnish orphanage in 1901 . She is sent to work as a housekeeper for Thomas Eklund, a doctor in a rural village. He falls in love with her but she has a boyfriend called Lauri in Helsinki, with whom she is desparate to be reunited. Thomas accompanies her on a long walk to the nearest railway station, so she can go to Helsinki, although he is very sad to see her leave. The second half of the book is set in Helsinki, where Lauri and his friend Sasha are involved in resistance to the Tsar's rule. The first half of the book is more interesting than the second but it enlightened me about an area of history about which I knew very little, for example I had no idea how much influence the Swedes had in Finland at this time. 6/10
6th April 2010
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