HEIMAN. Termination of the mission to find Hans PEKK is recommended. We have not received any new evidence that would indicate that Hans PEKK is alive and continuing his underground activities. Agent “X” will be transferred to other operations directed at uncovering anti-Soviet activities. Agent “Fly” will continue to collect evidence of nationalism.
October 5, 1951
Just one more night here. I’ve been talking with Ingel about searching for Linda. Together we’ll find her, no matter how long it takes. Although I’m not free yet, I will be soon, and my heart is as light as a swallow’s.
Soon the three of us will be together.
A GROVE PRESS READING GROUP GUIDE
ABOUT THIS GUIDE
We hope that these discussion questions will enhance your reading group’s exploration of Sofi Oksanen’s
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QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. What is Aliide’s state of mind when she discovers Zara in her yard? What clues does she use to try to determine who the girl is and whether she poses a threat? What is Aliide afraid of, and why?
2. Zara learns to fear black Volgas from an early age. What does the vehicle come to represent in Soviet Russia, and why? Does Oksanka’s visit fit this profile?
3. Without much freedom of movement, geography became destiny for Soviet citizens. What does Vladivostok symbolize to an Estonian like Aliide? What about to a “Russian” like Zara? What are each woman’s perceptions of Tallinn and of Finland?
4. Why do Zara’s mother and grandmother keep packed suitcases in the closet? What does the luggage contain, and why does grandmother check them at night?
5. “Those who poke around in the past will get a stick in the eye,” Aliide thinks to herself after Volli’s visit (p. 93). Why does she begin to burn Martin’s books? What does she find in Martin’s tobacco pouch, and why does it upset her?
6. How does Aliide react when Zara shows her the picture she has brought from Vladivostok? How does Aliide explain her sister’s crime? What does it take to be a “good communist”?
7. Ingel and Aliide’s sibling rivalry grows more intense after Ingel and Hans marry. Is Aliide truly in love with Hans, or is her infatuation an extension of her competition with her seemingly perfect older sister? Consider the lengths to which Aliide goes as she attempts to win Hans’s affections. What is she trying to prove?
8. Waves of foreign troops invade Estonia in the 1930s and 1940s. What are Estonians’ reactions to the Germans, and then to the Russians? What do the villagers expect from each arriving power, and how do they decide with whom to align?
9. Aliide and Zara share a skill for surviving, ably navigating and somehow enduring traumatic experiences. Consider the ways in which Aliide adapts to an oppressive Soviet regime. How do her reactions differ from those of Linda and Ingel? How is Zara able to survive her captivity? What are the bargains each woman must strike?
10. In what ways is the tension between the natural world, and the historical (eg: manmade, human) world portrayed? What are some recurring images, objects, and symbols that belong to each of these often contrasting cycles?
11. How does Aliide pick Martin, and how does she go about wooing him? What benefits does the marriage offer her, immediately and in the long run?
12. Aliide believes she is being tested when Martin reveals the list of names to her at the Town Hall. What’s her reaction to the news? Are jealousy and greed the only reasons why she feels no empathy for her soon-to- beexiled sister and niece? Consider why Aliide avoids and even wishes for the chance to bad-mouth “those women” with whom she shares a painful bond.
13. Why do you think Ingel is not a point-of-view character? In many ways she is the purest and most innocent, but is it possible to survive her times and circumstances without being complicit in some way?
14. How do Pasha and Lavrenti control the girls who work for them? What are the terms of Zara’s debt, and how does she plan to pay it off? What are some of the conditions that allow for this slavery to exist?
15. What does Pasha do to attempt to intimidate Aliide into revealing Zara’s whereabouts? How doe Aliide respond? In what ways are the two well-matched?
16. Why does Aliide decide to fake correspondence from Ingel? What kind of information does she include in these missives? When does Hans begin to suspect something isn’t right?
17. Until the moment Aliide kills Pasha and Lavrenti, the reader does not know where her allegiances lie, or what she will do. What is the greater significance of her final words to them: “Isn’t it nice? The Estonian forest. My forest.”
18. After Aliide sends Zara home, she decides to write a letter to Ingel. What does she want to convey to her sister, and what does she plan on doing after sending the note? What do you make of these actions?
19. The final section of the book is jarringly different in tone and style than the four sections that preceded it. What are we to make of the secret service reports? What is the author trying to do here, and do the contents of these reports shed light on, or in some cases, completely change our understanding of, events we lived alongside the characters themselves?
20. What is the significance of the title
Sofi Oksanen
