The Reviews:

1.  Lake Superior Magazine:  “Weaving a rich tale of the turbulent time from 1910 to the 1920s, Munger blends a mix of people from laborers to well-off civic leaders to produce an engrossing picture of the people and period along Lake Superior.”   

2.  Northland Reader:  “(T)his is the finest portrayal of life in the Northland at the turn of the last century that I’ve ever read…What makes this book special is the research and the incredible wealth of background information.”  

3.  Ripsaw:  “As winter settles over the region, those souls wishing to avoid the cold and snow should brew a warm beverage and settle in front of the fire with Suomalaiset: People of the Marsh…This ambitious historical novel sweeps the reader into a world of romance, labor strife, and political change with action bridging from Northeastern Minnesota to Canada and across the Atlantic to France…Munger captivates the reader by combining a strong fictional story with historical details…”

4.  Soundings:   “This book brings to life the rich history that Duluth holds…The book holds an element of mystery, love, and truth.”

 5.  Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal:  “Munger deals admirably with the constraints imposed by historical fact, but interweaves fact and fiction smoothly and believably…Munger uses his knowledge of human nature and the troubled teen years of the last century to provide the reader with an all too believable theory of historical events…It’s a tricky thing to bring real people into fiction but (Munger’s) speculation about events still clouded by mystery…rings true.”

6.  New World Finn:  “It’s difficult to put the novel down without contemplating how one is personally connected to early 20^th century immigrant history, and further, what motivates today’s immigration…I strongly recommend Mark Munger’s Suomalaiset: People of the Marsh for casual reading as well as serious classroom study. The novel inspires us to examine not only our past but also the present-to envision new possibilities of what might have been and what could be.”

 7.  Finnish American Reporter:  “Mark Munger is not a Finn but his latest work, Suomalaiset: People of the Marsh, embodies a certain sensitivity toward his subject that I very much appreciate…I recommend the book as an excellent and entertaining work that provides a fictional peek into the forces coming to bear on the lives of Finnish immigrants in the upper Midwest.”