The Colonel’s Wife
The Colonel’s Wife
by Rosa Liksom
translated from the Finnish by Lola Rogers
Graywolf Press
by the author of Compartment No. 6
An old woman living in a remote part of Lapland tells the unvarnished story of her life as a nature writer, free spirit, and fervent fascist. Raised by far-right partisans of the bloody Finnish Civil War and married at a young age to her beloved Colonel, she experiences the violent consequences first hand as her country’s alliance with Nazi Germany, and her own marriage, turn brutally cruel.
Based on a true story.
Reviews of The Colonel’s Wife:
“Liksom’s brief, haunting novel finds an elderly Finnish woman in her final days, reflecting on a lifetime as both a victim and perpetrator of cruelty… Memorably combines transportive prose and her narrator’s stark perspective.” – Publisher’s Weekly
“An intimate investigation of authoritarianism… there is something horribly fascinating in reading the words of someone who is eager to speak about her Nazi past without apology.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Liksom’s tale is a brilliantly drawn metaphor…just as it took tremendous hardship and effort for so many people to wake up from their simplistic, codependent love affair with fascism, so the narrator faces the painful and torturous challenge of struggling to break free of her relationship with the Colonel and to rebuild…” – Hans Rollmann, Pop Matters