
language: Finnish
REINO RAUANHEIMO
In the hush of early dawn, the Hietala family lives on the edge of a growing town where a modest wooden house stands squeezed between new brick buildings and a bustling main road. Through the thin walls the sounds of trams, freight trucks and lingering night‑time storms filter in, while mother Jenny quietly rises from a makeshift kitchen bed, skirts a leaking pipe and prepares tea before slipping her daughter back into sleep. She gathers a cart filled with ice‑cream, soda, fruit and tobacco, a routine she has performed for a decade since her husband’s death, each market trip a small act of perseverance.
Jenny steps out into the crisp, bright air, her thoughts drifting between the lost years and the hope that the day might bring something better for her children. Meanwhile Liisa awakens, swatted a persistent fly, and faces the new day with a mix of irritation and curiosity. The novel paints a vivid portrait of ordinary life in a 1930s Finnish working‑class neighbourhood, where everyday chores and quiet ambitions unfold against the backdrop of a town in transition.
Language
fi
Duration
~5 hours (303K characters)
Release date
Jan 8, 2026
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
1901–1953
A Finnish novelist and publishing editor whose work often focused on everyday life with a sharp social eye. Best known for the award-winning novel Aamusta iltaan, he wrote in the first half of the twentieth century and left behind a compact but notable body of fiction.
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