Sylvia

Sylvia

Minna Rytisalo’s new multi-layered novel about Petronella – the myth and legend of Lapland.

A novel about a woman who refused to settle down—and a world that refused to let her roam free.

What if a woman has only her name—and even that can be changed? Why did the Dutchwoman Sylvia van der Moer end up in Lemmenjoki gold-miners cabin in the summer of 1949, and why was there such a desperate effort to capture her?

In the wilderness of Lapland , geologist Klaus Säynävaara is walking beside Sylvia. He is carrying stones—and a truth Sylvia does not wish to hear.
In Berlin, Hedda Müller leafs through newspapers, searching for the article Sylvia promised to write about her. In Rome, Linda Mucci, single mother of eight, watches her guest and wonders whether this fugitive woman can be saved. But why does Sylvia refuse to recall her time in Tunisia?

This finely tuned novel widens into a meditation on the relationship between people and nature, in a Europe scarred by war, and on the responsibility an individual bears when the rules have changed.

Sylvia is a story of freedom and captivity, of what it means to live in a world where the war is over but suspicion has not vanished. Who was Sylvia, truly? An adventurer, a swindler, a survivor—or simply a woman who longed to be free?

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Finnish (WSOY, orig.)

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German (Hanser)