Maria Peura’s third novel Under the Water is a powerful story of a girl who grows up with her parents on an isolated island in Finnish Lapland.

When she moves to a university town to study German language and literature, she is unable to adapt to her new surroundings, with even escalators provoking fear and wonder in her. The girl doesn’t know her limits at all, nor does she know how to behave. She is an untamed child of nature in the wrong environment. The girl nevertheless manages to find some friends among the immigrant community. Peura’s sprawling novel is overflowing with sea winds, the storms of inner life, and the powerful presence of nature.

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GERMANY, Saxa