Despite the page number, this is all about great themes: love, hate, ignorance, death, birth. During two summer days and nights a group of people is introduced, whose stories form separate atmospheric scenes. Yrjö 'Nokia' Salonen struggles with his inner turmoil and lovelessness, young couple Helka and Arvid enjoy their time together, Santra needs tenderness while her husband Jukka wanders around drunk, Hilja and Jalmari are expecting their third child, a lonely artist ponders his role as a father and the old matriarch of Teliranta remembers her girlhood through her grandchild Helka.

The mood is lingering, like the gentle breeze of wind on a sizzling hot summer day, and the tenderness of a Finnish summer night can only be understood by those who have experienced it. Some moments are so beautiful they almost make you cry.

My favourite character of all these is absolutely Nokia, a blonde haired pretty boy who tries out the life of a... Well, I don't know how to translate this. You know, a man who balanced on the logs and guided them along the river. Anyway, Nokia makes a mistake, and in the end the anxiety and (sexual) frustration lead into a very touching scene.

One thing that goes through the whole book is an erotic charge, that apparently appalled the people of 1930s Finland (Sillanpää was a bit of a rebel I think). Maybe now this doesn't evoke the same kind of reaction in a reader, but the subtle hints by the right choices of words are for me the thing that makes this novel an even greater emotional experience.

Oh, and I'd really like to see the 1948 Valentin Vaala film. I usually (with one or two exceptions) hate old Finnish movies with their wooden actors, child-like actresses, and unintentionally amusing vibe. This, however, might be another exception. Just because of the beautiful Martti Katajisto, and because I hear the mood has been realised really well.