About this book

"Mitä kylvää sitä niittää : Kertomus" by Heikki Meriläinen is a novel written in the early 20th century. It portrays the ordeal of a Finnish orphan boy, Hemmo, as he navigates famine, poor relief, and the harsh huutolaisuus system that auctions the poor to the lowest bidder. The story contrasts cruelty and exploitation with rare acts of compassion, suggesting a moral arc in keeping with the title’s proverb. Readers can expect a stark social tale anchored in rural life, with Hemmo at its center. The opening follows a rural community through prolonged crop failures and the grim establishment of overcrowded poorhouses where adulterated bread, filth, and disease lead to mass deaths. Hemmo arrives with his parents at the Lepakko poorhouse; both parents die, and he alone survives, clinging to his mother’s coffin in a heartbreaking burial scene. When the poorhouses are dissolved, paupers are auctioned out; Hemmo is taken by the brutal Sipo, bullied by his sons, and deprived of food, clothing, and the alms he later gathers while briefly fleeing to kinder relatives and the city—only to be forced back and robbed of his gifts. Gradually a kinder neighbor, the Ratula household, intervenes; after a year Hemmo is brought to them, fed, clothed, and taught to read, and the section closes with his quick-witted rescue of the parson’s toddler from drowning—hinting at the boy’s resilience and the novel’s moral compass. (This is an automatically generated summary.)