The Winter War

by Philip Teir

  Max was still standing in front of the wedding guests.

  ‘Well, that’s all I really wanted to say. Or … wait, there’s one more thing. While I’m standing here I want to be sure to say that I’m so proud of both of you. My two daughters. You make your father very happy. So keep on doing that.’

  He looked around the room. At Katriina, at Eva, at Helen and Christian and his grandchildren. Russ was sitting next to Eva, looking like a man who had just won the lottery. Elisabeth was there too, and Ebba, sitting in her wheelchair. The strange thing was that his mother looked better than she had in years. Maybe she would outlive them all.

  After the applause Max went over to Eva and kissed her on the forehead.

  Elisabeth called out to him. ‘Great speech. You really know how to bullshit,’ she said.

  Risto came up and patted him on the shoulder, wanting to offer his congratulations. Then someone started up the music, a Beach Boys tune that poured out of the loudspeakers, filling the whole room. People were out on the balcony, talking. Max looked around the room and met Eva’s eye. She was standing in the doorway to the dining room in her pale yellow linen dress.

  Max went over to Helen. She was holding Lukas on her lap. He had turned six just a week ago. Amanda, wearing a blue dress, had a balloon that she tossed into the air and then caught, over and over.

  ‘Aren’t you going to say hi to Grandpa?’ asked Helen.

  ‘Hi, Grandpa,’ said Amanda.

  ‘How long do we have to stay at this damn wedding?’ said Lukas, clinging to his mother.

  ‘What did we tell you about using that word?’

  Almost two hundred guests had been invited to the wedding. Twenty of them came from England. They had formed a little clique in one corner of the room, and Max had the feeling that most of them were friends with both Russ and Eva. As far as Russ’s family was concerned, only his mother had come, along with his sister and her children. Max and Katriina had been introduced to them, very briefly, and he wondered whether they’d ever get to know each other better. Or maybe this would be the first and last time he ever saw his daughter’s mother-in-law.

  He found Katriina out on the balcony. She was sitting on a bench having a smoke. She looked so beautiful, and Max hated himself for thinking so.

  ‘Not a bad wedding.’

  ‘No, it’s quite lovely,’ she replied.

  ‘Have you talked to Russ’s mother?’

  ‘Just a little. She seems nice. Have you?’

  ‘No, not at all. His sister is awfully young.’

  ‘Not much younger than I was when I had Helen.’

  ‘Maybe not.’

  Max sat there, with the midsummer sun high in the sky, feeling the warm air – with no mosquitoes in sight – and it was almost as if nothing had changed. He could have leaned towards Katriina, put his arm around her, and sat there all night.

  ‘What are you staring at?’ she asked.

  ‘Well, um … I’m not. Staring, I mean.’

  ‘We should go in. I don’t want people to get the wrong idea. There’s no going back for us, you know.’

  ‘No, I know.’ Max said.

  acknowledgements

  THERE ARE SEVERAL PEOPLE whose assistance made this book possible. At an early stage Professor J. P. Roos at Helsinki University generously provided me with tips on various reference works and also agreed to be interviewed. When the manuscript neared completion, he was kind enough to offer his comments. Sture Sunabacka told me what it was like for someone from Österbotten to come to Helsinki in the seventies, and Em Weirdigan shared experiences from four months spent with the Occupy movement in London. Ulf Månsson contributed some of the legal wording that also made its way into the story.

  During the whole writing process, Edvard Westermarck’s memoirs made for both entertaining and fascinating reading, as did his book on marriage. Someone really should write a new Westermarck biography. The last one, by Rolf Lagerborg, came out in the fifties and is far from complete.

  As an introduction to the art world, I read Sarah Thornton’s Seven Days in the Art World (2008). Michael Foley’s book of essays titled The Age of Absurdity: Why Modern Life Makes It Hard to be Happy (2010) had a certain influence on sociology professor Max Paul and his view of the world. The Paul family summer cottage is named Råddon, which is a word that I discovered in a poetry collection by Lars Huldén, Långdansen (1976). I would also like to mention Claire Messud’s novel The Emperor’s Children (2006), which gave me the idea of presenting Max via the article in Helsingin Sanomat.

  Pia Ingström filled in for me when I took a leave of absence from my job at Hufvudstadsbladet, and my colleague Lena Skogberg read the manuscript when I needed fresh eyes to have a look at it. Thanks also to Svenska Kulturfonden, Östersjön’s translation and author centre in Visby, and Kulturfonden för Sverige Finland.

  Thanks to my editors Sara Ehnholm Hielm, Nina Eidem and Lotta Sonninen for all their comments and improvements – and most of all for their patience. And thank you to Tiina Nunnally for translating The Winter War into English.

  And finally, a big thank you to Malin, who has always encouraged my writing. That makes EVERYTHING so much easier. I love you.

  PHILIP TEIR, a Finland–Swede, is considered one of the most promising young writers in Scandinavia. His poetry and short stories have been included in anthologies, including Granta Finland. The Winter War is his first novel. He is married with two children and lives in Helsinki, Finland, in the same neighbourhood as the Paul family.

  about the publisher

  House of Anansi Press was founded in 1967 with a mandate to publish Canadian-authored books, a mandate that continues to this day even as the list has branched out to include internationally acclaimed thinkers and writers. The press immediately gained attention for significant titles by notable writers such as Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, George Grant, and Northrop Frye. Since then, Anansi's commitment to finding, publishing and promoting challenging, excellent writing has won it tremendous acclaim and solid staying power. Today Anansi is Canada's pre-eminent independent press, and home to nationally and internationally bestselling and acclaimed authors such as Gil Adamson, Margaret Atwood, Ken Babstock, Peter Behrens, Rawi Hage, Misha Glenny, Jim Harrison, A. L. Kennedy, Pasha Malla, Lisa Moore, A. F. Moritz, Eric Siblin, Karen Solie, and Ronald Wright. Anansi is also proud to publish the award-winning nonfiction series The CBC Massey Lectures. In 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2011 Anansi was honoured by the Canadian Booksellers Association as "Publisher of the Year."