“I fell in love with an incredible story”

With “The Winter Warriors”, Olivier Norek tells us the heroic epic of these Finnish soldiers forgotten by History facing Stalin’s army. A first historical novel for the Aveyron author. A popular success with already 130,000 copies sold.

King of thriller, “Between two worlds” has just been named best detective novel of the year by The Times, in England, the former captain of the judicial police tries his hand at white literature for the first time and it is a great success.

“The Winter Warriors“, already sold more than 130,000 copies less than four months after its release, has won literary prizes including the Renaudot for high school students.

A gigantic fresco where Olivier Norek pays tribute to the incredible courage of the Finns in trying to repel the attacks of Stalin’s Russians between November 30, 1939 and March 13, 1940. In the middle of winter under temperatures of -50 degrees.

In terms of number of combatants, the fight is totally unequal but Carl Gustaf Mannerheim, the war leader knows how to galvanize his troops thanks to content, the soul of Finland. “Make the sons of the same village a company of soldiers, whether they are brothers, friends, neighbors on the battlefield, they will also have before their eyes those they must defend.“ (extract)

Days the devil wouldn’t even want.

Excerpt from “The Winter Warriors”, by Olivier Norek

This war is a slaughter. The Russian strategy is brutal. “Nearly 20,000 bombs per day were plowing the soil of Finland. That is fourteen every minute for almost a month already, with days that the devil wouldn’t even want and where the Russians could increase the rate to reach two hundred thousand shells. And yet, Finland held” (extract).

Lieutenant Colonel Teittinen harangues his troops: “Be certain, when attacks are carried out by an army that we thought was defeated in advance, they terrify our adversaries. And I promise you that you terrify them. Morale is high. a weapon, and you, soldiers, undermine it day after day.” (extract)

He’s not a soldier, he’s death dressed in white. The White Death.

Excerpt from “The Winter Warriors”, by Olivier Norek.

Especially since the Finns can benefit from the best sniper of all time. Simo killed, on command, as much as he was asked, without anger or resentment, for his country. The Russians have nightmares about it: “He’s not a soldier, he’s death dressed in white. The White Death.“

But the Russian steamroller will ultimately get the better of the heroic Finnish defense. The Red Army lost nearly four hundred thousand men and will not recognize any officially only three hundred and fifty. The Finnish army suffered a little less than seventy thousand.

On March 12, 1940, in the Kremlin, surrounded by Molotov and Stalin himself, Finnish Prime Minister Risto Ryti signed the Moscow Peace Treaty. Nearly half a million Finns go into exile.

Olivier Norek, it’s a novel, but is it all true?

Yes, that’s exactly it. The novel is what I know how to do. Emotions, characters, these are ingredients that I know how to juggle and cook with. And above all, I fell in love with an incredible story. I found myself faced with this challenge of writing a historical novel. And I know that I never got into the story when I was in middle school, in high school. It was really a subject that was very complex for me, because I found it too factual, not human enough.

I think that the more we talk about the small story within the big one, the more we talk about the humanity of historical characters, the more we work on the anecdotes, and the better the story becomes printed.

I think that the more we talk about the small story within the big one, the more we talk about the humanity of historical characters, the more we work on the anecdotes, and the better the story becomes printed. So I wanted to tell a historical novel, both for history buffs, obviously, who find themselves there, but also for people who, at first glance, would not have read a historical novel. I, basically, write detective novels, and I wrote this historical novel with the same energy, with the same vitality as my detective novels, but with a pen that is a little more, obviously, literary, because the History, precisely, demanded it.

How did you work?

The least you can do is go there and do the work of a journalist, collect as much information as possible, but above all check it, double check it like a journalist, so that you have in your hands a novel that only tells the truth, but still a novel.

What is Sisu?

Sisu is the soul of Finland, inner strength, tenacity, obstinacy, courage. It’s truly a word that conveys the strength of the Finnish people.

And for this tiny country that is Finland to decide to go to war with a gigantic enemy who will certainly defeat them, they will still go and fight because, precisely, they are animated by Sisu, animated by this inner strength which fact that they are ready to defend their country at all costs, even if the adversary is a thousand times bigger than them.

Stalin attacked the wrong country

Stalin wasn’t really the kind of person you said no to. At the time, he was already known to be deeply paranoid and totally psychopathic, since he still shot 700,000 officers in the head and sent a million people to the gulags. Well, unfortunately for him, he attacked the wrong country, since the Finns, who had only been independent for 22 years, cherished this new freedom too much to be able to part with even the slightest square kilometer of their country.

Is your book also a story of friendship, of very strong human relationships?

Yes, it’s a story of friendship, it’s a story of courage, quite simply because the war leader of Finland, Mannerheim, has a strategically fabulous idea, but humanly one that will give him nightmares until the end. at the end of his life. This warlord made a rather astonishing bet. To win this war, he bet on love. It’s crazy, that is to say that to win this war, he said to himself, the soldiers of the same village will have such a strong bond with each other that there will be no desertion. And during this Finnish war, there was no desertion.

Who is Simo, the hero of your book who terrorized the entire Russian army?

Simo is known as the greatest sniper in history. But you will grant me that it takes a rather particular inclination to want to write 500 pages about a sniper. For me, death and violence was my main subject for 18 years when I was a police officer, so I have no fantasies about that. And I didn’t necessarily want to write the story of an assassin.

On the other hand, what I wanted to write was the story of these kids from Finland who were not predestined to go and kill people, or to go to war, or to shoot at the enemy. And who, through their brotherhood, through their courage, became heroes and who fought so hard that, even if they lost this winter war, Stalin’s victory was shameful and Finland’s defeat was the glue of the nation.

You write: “No one knows what we owe the Winter Soldiers.” For what ?

It was only through the sacrifice of these 70,000 children of Finland who died in defense of their country that Hitler saw that Russia was a colossus with feet of clay. Otherwise he would have left his 4.5 million soldiers in Europe. Which means that today, no one knows what we owe to the Winter Soldiers. But certainly, Europe, the world, France, would have different borders, a different culture. History would have changed completely if Finland had not been so brave and courageous. So it’s still pretty crazy to have erased this story from French school textbooks.

It was only through the sacrifice of these 70,000 children of Finland who died in defense of their country that Hitler saw that Russia was a colossus with feet of clay.

Your book is experiencing phenomenal success, already 130,000 copies sold. A comic book and a film are already in preparation?

Yes, absolutely. For the comics, we already have a designer who is making the first boards so that we can move forward together, and then for the cinema, it was signed a few days ago, so we are very, very proud. It could be a very big international production but I can’t say more…

Ready for new adventures?

My mind is not yet at all, at all, at all ready to set off again on the great adventure of a book, because a book, when it’s a detective novel, takes me a year and a half. This one took me two and a half years, so it’s a real, real, real piece of my life.

I still have to fall in love with a story. I don’t write to order, I wouldn’t be able to, I absolutely have to fall in love with a story. So, if this future story needs cops, it will be a thriller, if it takes place 100 years ago, it will still be a historical novel, and if it tells a magnificent love story, then this will be a romance, but right now I have no idea. I enjoy Aveyron, with my family, and the Christmas holidays.

Wednesday December 18: Le Point virgule bookstore in Espalion from 6 p.m.

Saturday December 21: Maison du livre in Rodez from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. then from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.