Author Visit: Ilkka Kemppinen (in Finnish)

Tue 1.12.

5 pm

Three men from the same village in Ruokolahti. They fight in the Red Guard in Joutseno. As the Reds retreat through Lappeenranta toward Vyborg, they travel against the tide.

Two men, a father and son, factory workers from Tainionkoski. They hide from the Whites and attempt to cross the ice of Lake Saimaa to reach the Red side in Lappeenranta.

A young factory worker whom first the Reds and then the Whites try to recruit and force into their ranks. He stubbornly struggles to remain neutral.

A painter and wrestler from Tainionkoski. He seeks revenge for the way the bourgeoisie treated him and his brother.

And a young woman who leaves for Helsinki to work as a maid. She falls in love with a young man who ends up fighting in Joutseno. She follows him eastward and takes a position at a hospital ward in Lappeenranta. Concerned about her family, she crosses to the White side to visit her relatives.

The List of the Murdered is a historical novel that follows eight individuals who, through different paths, end up in the prison camp at Vuoksenniska. Its vivid portrayal of Finland during wartime also reminds readers of contemporary political shifts and increasing polarization of opinions.

“My burden of sin was made even heavier by the fact that I was known to have been infected with the most treacherous disease of all: socialism.”

Ilkka Kemppinen is an eternal Karelian boy living in Espoo. He is endlessly fascinated by the Finnish language and the many ways its words can be translated, twisted, and transformed. He fears that by the 2200s no one will speak, write, or read Finnish anymore. In 2025, Kemppinen’s book Blood and Snow (Verta ja lunta) was published.