Stalins Kühe

A furious novel about a subject not considered in literature Anna has everything under control. She serves a "mistress", bulimia, because there is nothing more important to her than having a perfect body and being unassailable.Anna's parents separate when her mother Katariina finds out that her husband is cheating on her. She, who is Estonian, denies her origins because she knows what a bad reputation Estonians have in Finland - they are considered Russian whores who managed to escape to Finland by marrying. For fear that her daughter will be treated with the same contempt as she is, she is not allowed to learn the language or tell anyone where her mother comes from. Yet the two regularly travel to Estonia to support the family, who experienced the horrors of the Soviet labour camps and suffered spying and blackmail from close associates. As Anna struggles to regain her weight and learns that she really is sick and that anorectic bulimia can kill her, the reader learns the background to the family history, the cause of Anna's suffering, which goes back to the time of the occupation of Estonia after the Second World War.In brilliant language, with precise knowledge of the historical background and a masterful composition, Sofi Oksanen once again proves why her novels are celebrated worldwide.