Poissa
Book cover: branches in a snowy landscape, the word "POISSA."
Avain Publishing Company
May 10, 2011

"Poissa" by Meritta Koivisto

INTRODUCTION
Jaakob, Mikael, Hannu, Sakari, Ossi, Marie, and Kitta. Seven children, already too hardened by life. A foster home shrouded in silence about its events. Bruises on their bodies, cuts on their skin. A dark basement where jam thieves were sent to reflect on the consequences of their actions. All they wanted was to escape, to be saved. At a Salvation Army summer camp, a friendship is born, one that years later leads to an act whose resulting guilt lingers into adulthood. A briefcase full of money stolen from Jaakob's stepfather Kaarlo's company disappears, and the friends drift apart, each going their own way.
The robbery they committed in their youth and the mystery of the missing briefcase continue to haunt them even years later. Life has taken them in different directions—some to flipping burgers at a fast-food counter, others to careers as lawyers, or to the dimly lit bars where they search for solace at the bottom of a glass. Yet, the shadow of the crime they committed lingers in the background of their lives.
When sudden clues about the lost briefcase begin to surface, their reunion becomes inevitable in one way or another. They must finally face their past head-on.
Reviews
All in all, this is a work that does not let its reader off easily, but instead challenges them to think. This feels refreshingly exceptional in a time when the greatest virtue of culture is to produce pre-chewed candy for the brain.
Jussi Kämäräinen, critic, Kouvolan Sanomat
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