House of Orphans

House of Orphans

by HelenDunmore (Author)

Synopsis

Set in Finland in the year 1901: Eeva, the young orphaned daughter of a revolutionary, is sent from the orphanage to work as housekeeper for Thomas, a widowed country doctor. Her challenging, independent, enigmatic presence disturbs Thomas as much as it fascinates him. Their relationship will shatter all the certainties of his life. Meanwhile, Eeva is drawn back to Helsinki, to the comrades of her childhood, and in particular to Lauri, the son of her father's friend. It is a world full of danger. For this is Finland in political ferment - the power of the Russian Empire over its subject peoples is growing more oppressive, but resistance to the Tsar's rule is growing too, both in Finland and in Russia. Some call such resistance terrorism; others call it a fight for freedom. Just as Helen Dunmore's "The Siege" is a novel about how huge public events bear down on private lives, so "House of Orphans", while a spellbinding story of love and loneliness is also about the tension between reform and revolution, and a country emerging into Independence.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 336
Edition: First Edition
Publisher: Fig Tree
Published: 23 Feb 2006

ISBN 10: 0670914517
ISBN 13: 9780670914517

Media Reviews
Outstanding, a sheer pleasure to read. Dunmore is a remarkable storyteller * Daily Mail *
Part love story, part tragedy . . . Dunmore on dazzling form. Everyone should read her work * Independent on Sunday *
Every character is richly drawn and makes for compelling reading ... top-quality fiction * Daily Express *
Richly ambitious . . . there isn't a dull page. A remarkable achievement * Scotsman *
Extraordinary . . . combines a luminous delicacy of observation with raw emotional power to haunting effect * Sunday Telegraph *
Vivid and exciting . . . Dunmore creates a beautiful sense of stillness . . . she conveys a passion for Finland's icy landscape * Observer *
Beautifully written . . . a story about us all * Evening Standard *
Author Bio
Helen Dunmore has published eight novels with Viking and Penguin: Zennor in Darkness, which won the McKitterick Prize; Burning Bright; A Spell of Winter, which won the Orange Prize; Talking to the Dead; Your Blue-Eyed Boy; With Your Crooked Heart, and The Siege, which was shortlisted for the 2001 Whitbread Novel of the Year Award and for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2002; and Mourning Ruby. She is also a poet, children's novelist and short-story writer.