Notes on a Thin Black Book
On one of those shelves my partner spotted 10 Estonian Novels: Selected Excerpts and bought it for me. It’s a thin book, black, published by the Estonian Literature Centre.
The Trapper’s Epic
Thus the taiga is both magnet and mistress to Niika-Nganassaan, the hero of this book. He becomes the enlightened psychopomp of Nikolai Baturin (1936–2019), the one who leads the reader into this immense forest labyrinth.
Francis Young on Lennart Meri’s Silverwhite
Silverwhite is a work of literary non-fiction of the historical imagination, and a great one. As Meri declares: ‘Literature offers not history but visions and, in the best case, historical possibilities’.
Asking the Big Questions: On a Contemporary Estonian Anthology of Plays
Written between 2017 and 2022, these works by Estonian playwrights bring surprising freedom and facility to reflections on historical events, with precise and biting revelations of existing social problems and an almost prophetic glimpse into the future.
Kairi Look’s Dance the Dust off the Floor
In its short chapters, Look portrays how the emotionally secure maternal home lays the foundation for a child’s developing confidence, creativity and resilience. Rituals and calm, instilled early on, shape a deep emotional pattern and specific set of skills that remain intact even in the face of loss and mourning, enabling the protagonist to ‘live…
Piret Raud’s The Age of Boiled Deer
Not everything the reader encounters can be explained by common sense. Raud’s world resembles that created by David Lynch. Through Raud’s city streets and beneath its floorboards swims an inexplicable tension and evil that can only be conveyed through devices familiar from the subconscious.
