Description
Book SynopsisA full-color history and celebration of Finnish sauna in the western Great Lakes region.
Trade Review"The Finnish sauna is often a modest structure, made of wood and stone. Over time the wood rots, the stones crack, and finally all that is left are memories. But what memories! I can’t think of any human activity except eating that brings people together with such wholeness. Mind, body, and spirit are fused by the heat and steam, and we are collectively reminded of all the things that make us uniquely human. Author Michael Nordskog and photographer Aaron W. Hautala have created a fitting tribute to the great sauna tradition of northern Minnesota. The Opposite of Cold makes permanent the fleeting memories of the early Finnish immigrants and the generations that followed. This is an important work and it honors everything it touches." —Mikkel Aaland, author of Sweat
"This beautifully illustrated guide to the saunas of not only Minnesota but also Wisconsin, Michigan, Ontario and Finland celebrates a very old tradition while revealing its importance to modern Midwestern culture. . . . It’s a lovely tribute to North America’s ‘sauna belt.’" —Chicago Tribune
"This lovely, intelligent book examines sauna tradition in the United States (primarily in the regions around Lake Superior) as well as in Finland. Beautifully illustrated with every possible sauna photo you can imagine—interiors, exteriors, saunas on farms, along lakeshores, in cities, saunas in high summer, saunas in the snow." —Star Tribune
Table of ContentsContents
Foreword David Salmela
Introduction: The Sign of the Finn Arnold R. Alanen
Sauna in the New World
Immigrant Saunas in the Lake Superior Region
Finland's Sauna Culture
The North American Lakeside Tradition
The Value of Heat
Keeping the Wood-Fired Sauna Tradition Alive
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
