Hota-Leenan poika : Muutaman miehen onni, elämä ja sen tapahtumat by Haanpää
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"Hota-Leenan poika" by Pentti Haanpää is a novel written in the early 20th century. It follows Taneli Hotakka, the resilient son of a poor farm woman, as he grows up in a Finnish village shaped by hard work, mischief, folk magic, and stern piety. Through sharp, earthy scenes and dry humor, the story probes poverty, social pecking orders, and the pull between superstition and revivalist faith. The opening of the novel contrasts
the old countryside with the present, then introduces Hota-Leena, abandoned by her man, and her newborn son Taneli in the modest Hotakka farm by Hotapuro. Taneli’s childhood is split between chores and rough play—he scavenges pig feed, sneaks liquor with the taciturn Närhi-Iikka, and earns a whipping. As a boy servant at Kivitalo he falls from a ladder while tarring the parish clerk’s house, mangling his nose, and is hauled at night to a famed blind healer at Syinmaa. There he sees a shadowy world of cripples, potions, and commanding rites, as the genial yet unsettling sorcerer tends him and quietly offers to take him on as an apprentice, while the jealous helper Hallelujaa-Aatami frightens him with macabre tales. Drawn yet wary, Taneli is finally reclaimed by Hota-Leena, who purges the “charms” and sends him back to work. The narrative then sketches years at Kivitalo—pranks and brawls with the sharp-tongued Leviämaa and the Harri brothers, smoky winter handiwork, furtive dances—and closes this section with the village’s religious awakening, a home meeting where a preacher’s fervor (and the renks’ noisy wood-stacking) pulls even the laborers into the room. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Haanpää, Pentti, 1905-1955 |
|---|---|
| Title | Hota-Leenan poika : Muutaman miehen onni, elämä ja sen tapahtumat |
| Original Publication | Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Kansanvalta, 1929. |
| Credits | Credits: Anna Siren and Tapio Riikonen |
| Language | Finnish |
| LoC Class | PH: Language and Literatures: Finno-Ugrian and Basque languages and literatures |
| Subject | Finnish fiction -- 20th century |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 77877 |
| Release Date | Feb 7, 2026 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 191 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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