
audiobook
Produced by Tapio Riikonen
A late‑summer day in 1899 finds a weary traveler waiting on a newly laid railway line in rural Finland. The sun beats down on a bustling platform where workers, their families, and curious onlookers gather to witness the iron horse’s first journeys. The heat hangs heavy, and a sudden storm rolls in, turning the scene into a blur of wind, rain, and the clatter of steam.
Amid the crowd, a young woman in a drenched dress steps forward, her eyes wide and haunted. She repeatedly pleads for a way home, her voice trembling as she answers the narrator’s questions about her origins and her husband’s whereabouts. Her hesitant replies hint at hidden worries and a past tied to the railway’s construction, leaving the observer—and the listener—wondering what secrets lie beneath her frightened demeanor. The encounter sets the tone for a tale of ordinary lives intersecting with the restless pulse of progress.
Language
fi
Duration
~2 hours (171K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Release date
2005-02-07
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
Subjects

1827–1913
Born into poverty in Ylivieska, this self-taught Finnish writer became one of the most widely read authors of his time by writing vividly about ordinary rural life. His work helped bring peasant voices into modern Finnish literature and also found readers abroad through translation.
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