Short stories
Hemkomsten och andra noveller
Not translated into English
Runar Schildt · 1919
Opening lines
Hög himmel och rikt solljus bredde sig över Velkkala den julidag då lantbruksrådets äldsta pojke fyllde sitt fjortonde år. Stödd mot sin spade stod Aapo i trädgården och iakttog genom lövens gröna gallerverk hur livet vaknade där inne i det stora vita huset.
A high sky and rich sunlight spread over Velkkala on the July day when the agricultural councillor's eldest boy turned fourteen. Leaning on his spade, Aapo stood in the garden and watched through the green latticework of the leaves as life awoke inside the big white house.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from litteraturbanken.se
Synopsis
Four short stories, three of which centre on the civil war of 1918. Aapo, a farmhand on an estate in Häme, becomes a laughing stock the day the steward has him lead the donkey bought for his children, and people begin to call the donkey by his name; he broods over his shame until the war puts a weapon in his hand. In the title story, a farm boy who left with the Reds returns after the defeat to hide in his village, with the help of his mother. Another follows an arms dealer and his mistress in Helsingfors.
Context
The collection appeared from Holger Schildt in 1919: its author was, with Sillanpää, Joel Lehtonen and Sigrid Backman, one of the first to respond to the civil war. Of the story of the return, it is above all the mother, a courageous woman of the people, who holds his gaze. Kjell Westö reproached him for not seeing the social causes of the uprising and for giving a stereotyped image of the Reds. Johan Bargum took the title story to the stage, at the Lilla Teatern; the one about the smuggler was filmed by Nyrki Tapiovaara in 1938 and by Alf Sjöberg in 1939. The collection appeared in Finnish in 1922, and the title story in French in 1927.
Who it is for
Four short stories, in Swedish; it is better to know about the Finnish Civil War of 1918. The text can be read freely on Project Runeberg.
Prizes and reception
Among the best-known works of an author counted among the finest prose writers in Finland's Swedish-language literature.