At last my debut novel sees the light of day! This book started as a single question a few years ago: what side of WWII was Finland on? With a little research I discovered there’s not such a clear answer. Stuck in between the gigantic USSR and the small peaceful nation of Finland sits an isthmus of quiet forests and lakes known as Karelia. During the Winter War this would become a killing ground, contested territory pulverized and scorched until the Soviet Union grabbed it for themselves and have held it ever since. What of the Finnish families living there? What would happen if there were two brothers who got split apart by the war? That last question formed the kernel of the story, like a fleck of dust soaring through a stormcloud, accreting ice until it forms a snowflake. Here is the story and go here for the book:
Two brothers, two countries, two sides of a war.
Finding their way as young men lead one brother to the Finnish army and the other to school in Leningrad, neither of which is a safe place to be on the brink of World War II. Patriotic responsibility and communist zeal can’t shield the brothers from the realities of adulthood.
As one gets entangled in espionage for the Soviet Union and the other fights for the hopelessly outnumbered Finnish army, winter sets in. The Winter War brings the two brothers together at a stalled convoy in the frozen north and only their love—for each other, for a woman, for Finland—can save them.
Writer, architect, father, husband.
Checking the New York Times Best Seller list next week!