Although a formidable task for a non-native speaker of Finnish, Vaino Linna's "Unknown Soldier" is one of the most striking, if not entirely brutal, portrayls of the struggles of the Finnish people. The uniquely Finnish concept of "sisu," best translated as "unwavering courage and tenacity in the face of insurmountable odds" is at the core of this book, as Linna's ragtag cast of Finnish peasants fight the juggernaut of the Russian military. The richness of the characters' far-flung dialects is a nuance perhaps only accessable to native Finnish speakers, as are the various provincial stereotypes. However, Linna's mastery of narration is something appreciable to all. The book's heroic protagonists are created in painstaking detail; Linna affords the reader a long and intimate bond with these characters before they are snubbed by a bullet in the blink of an eye. The sudden and harsh void this creates is surely at the core of what is at once one a moving protestation of war and a celebration of Finnish tenacity.

The Tuntematon Sotilas, ny Vaeinoe Linna, is probably the best finnish book about war. I don't actually read war books, because they tend to be violent without any idea. Tuntematon sotilas isn't just violent - well, it has a lot of fighting scenes, but then again, it's a war book - but it also has humour, thought and interesting characters. The characters speak in a variety of finnish dialects, so I guess it would be hard for a non-finnish person to read. But they are also funny and have their own personalities. Through their mouths the writer expresses critic about the stupidity of war, its brutality and on the other hand, its exitement. Tuntematon sotilas is also realistic, so it doesn't try to make war beautiful. People get killed, many of those nice characters. That's how it is, in the real life. I had doubts about this book, but when I started reading, I just couldn't stop. It's great!