Novel
The Unknown Soldier
Tuntematon sotilas
Väinö Linna · 1954
Synopsis
A company of Finnish machine-gunners, from the mobilisation of 1941 to the fighting of 1944, in the marshes and pine forests. These men, from all over the country and from every walk of life, quarrel, joke, swear, pilfer a loaf or a cigarette, and fight boredom as much as horror. They think for themselves, criticise their officers and let fear and revolt show, far from the noble, obedient soldier of the official accounts.
Context
The model for it is the author's own unit, the 8th Infantry Regiment. Sent to Werner Söderström on 26 September 1954 under the title Sotaromaani, the manuscript received a harsh verdict from the reading committee; the publisher removed passages judged politically or religiously provocative and part of the coarse language, and the title changed. The book appeared on 3 December 1954; the full version was only published in 2000. It has been adapted for the screen by Edvin Laine in 1955, Rauni Mollberg in 1985 and Aku Louhimies in 2017, the latter based on the manuscript. In French, it appeared as early as 1956.
Who it is for
A long novel, in Finnish, with dialogue in regional dialects, much of which is lost in translation.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as its author's masterpiece and as one of the major novels of Finnish literature; nearly seven hundred and fifty thousand copies sold according to its publisher.