Aurora and Molly

Aurora travels with Iida from Finland to Canada in 1903 in Anna Amnell's Aurora and Molly. The book was written and published in Finnish in 1999.  Read a short English excerpt:

"Early in the morning, while the apple trees were blossoming, Aurora and Iida were preparing to set out on the long journey. --

The luggage was carried from the hall into the carriage. First, the beautiful 

Parisian travelling chest that Aurora’s mother had brought from St. Petersburg when she was married. A wooden box that had been made by Iida’s father was placed beside it. He had painted it red with ochre and nailed sturdy leather straps at both ends.

--

The girls climbed aboard the carriage. Aurora placed a carpet bag beside her that contained her diary and drawing utensils.

“Are you sure you packed the plant press?” Aurora asked.

“Yes, it’s in the trunk,” Hilma assured her.

Iida squeezed the black bag she held in her lap. The bag had been given to her by Hilma, and it contained her most precious possessions: a heavy woollen scarf and under it a worn hymnbook given to her by her mother. The bag also contained Iida’s own wooden spoon that had her name carved on it, which she had taken out of the crack in the wall where she had kept it at home.

--

Aurora and Iida’s last memory of their home village was the smell of apple trees and the warbling of chaffinches in the birch trees that lined the road."

Anna Amnell : Aurora and Molly [Aurora ja Molly, 1991]

Trans. M & M  Amnell copyright Illustration: Matti Amnell (Jr)



Leaving Helsinki