Sointula: An Island Utopia

by Paula Wild

Book Overview

Sointula - it means harmony - is a tiny community on Malcolm Island, a short ferry ride from northern Vancouver Island. It was founded at the turn of the century by the Kalevan Kansa Society, a group of Finnish utopians, and Matti Kurikka, their charismatic but impractical leader. Despite serious setbacks, including a disastrous fire in 1903 that killed eleven people, the Finns built a thriving community. Even after the Kalevan Kansa ended, locals...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1550174568
• ISBN13: 9781550174564
• Release Date: October 2007
• Publisher: Harbour Publishing
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.9" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Fascinating!

I enjoyed her book very much. It would make a good reading assignment for perhaps secondary and college level political and social science courses, offering a more personal, social, and human insight to the rise and fall of communism and pure socialism in the twentieth century. It also has some veryinteresting historical reflection on northwest coast commercial fishing.I think it should go to reprint so more people can enjoy it.

Informative historical book of Finnish settlers in BC.

Having visited the Vancouver Island area many times I found the book "Sointula: Island Utopia" very informative on the Finnish immigrants who settled on Sointula with a social experiment in mind. The book provides a good background on the reasons for the settlement, describes the successes and failures of the settlement in great detail and provides a history of the island up to the present day. . The book is well laid out chronologically and the numerous photos add greatly to the understanding of the history of Sointula. I highly recommend the book to those who are interested in the history of British Columbia or have an interest in the history of Finnish immigration to the New World.