Veikko Korhonen
The forest is Nevalainen’s livelihood, refuge and last claim to independence, but its resources are dwindling and outsiders are pressing closer. In this three-act Finnish drama, a woodsman’s determination to preserve his way of life collides with poverty, social expectation and the demands of a community from which he has become increasingly estranged. His rural home is not merely a shelter from hardship: it is the ground on which dignity, authority and belonging are contested.A charge arising from an illicitly killed elk leaves Nevalainen facing a fine he cannot readily pay. His attempt to secure a loan brings him before institutional authority, where his distance from the church and refusal to submit deepen an already precarious situation. Yet the play’s pressure is felt just as sharply within the family. Conflict with his wife, Elina, and dependence on his daughter expose the strain beneath his fierce self-reliance, turning rural hardship into an intimate domestic struggle.Across the cottage, the parsonage and the surrounding wilderness, forest life stands in uneasy opposition to agricultural and communal society. Nevalainen’s attachment to the woods sustains him even as isolation, hunger and financial need narrow his choices. The drama draws its force from this psychologically burdened figure: proud of his independence, resistant to authority and caught between the home he seeks to defend and the social order he cannot entirely escape. This book was out of print for decades and is now republished by Alpha Editions.It has been restored for today’s and future generations.This edition is not just a reprint - it’s a collector’s item and a cultural treasure.
