"Kertomuksia Etelä-Pohjanmaalta" by Matti Rinta is a collection of short stories written in the late 19th century. Set among farmers and laborers in South Ostrobothnia, it portrays village life with its celebrations, temptations, and communal pressures. Early tales follow figures like Tokkalan Samppo, the drink-prone Kaisan-Antti, and the striving Mäkituvan couple Hemppa and Maija, using their choices to explore pride, alcohol, and social standing. The voice mixes lively incident with clear moral
realism. The opening of the collection first tells how Samppo buys showy boots, hosts a boisterous “harjakaiset,” and, amid drunken card play and a brawl on the village road, is fatally stabbed by Antti, who confesses and is sent away—briefly sobering the village before old habits return. It then follows Hemppa and Maija as they sell their cow and run up credit to attend a distant niece’s wedding, trying to look prosperous; Hemppa drinks, squanders money, suffers humiliation at an inn, and on the ride home overturns the cart, shattering his leg and pushing the family into lasting poverty and poor relief. At the start of the next story, Pyhänä, a young man, Jussi, wakes on a clear Sunday and lies listening to the farm, reluctant to obey his father and longing for freedom, setting up tensions of youth, duty, and rural routine. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
