Heidi Köngäs: Dora, Dora

Dora, Dora (2012)
Heidi Köngäs
Otava, 2013
Pokkari, 333 sivua


Finlandia-ehdokas 2012
Oma, vapautettu
GR: 3/5 tähteä
★★ ½


Dora, Dora (the name refers to the concentration camp Mittelbau-Dora) tells about the trip that Albert Speer, Hitler's chief architect and Minister of Armaments made to Lapland, Finland, during the Christmas time in 1943. It had four narrators; the story is told by Speer himself, his secretary, the magician who was brought along to entertain the troops and the Finnish interpreter. Speer thinks mainly about his relationship with Hitler, with whom he had fallen out, and others had their own worries.

The picture that served as the inspiration for the book (from Wikipedia):

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-J16637, Finnland, Albert Speer

My problem with the book is that I can't say how believable the characters and their voices are. The historical details seem to be well researched but people's thoughts are another matter. It's just imbossible to tell. I also don't like the style of using multiple first-person narrators, maybe because this is the second(?) book I have read in a short while that used them. It also made reading a bit distressing which of course might have been deliberate. Also even though I generally enjoy reading about history in fictional books as much (or more) as the next person, I think there was too much of that in this one, too many flashbacks. I would have prefered more interaction between characters, more dialogue.

In the end, though I think the book was well written and the setting was quite interesting, I was a bit disappointed. I guess I expected something different.