Books from Estonia
12 popular estonian books
Travel the world without leaving your chair.
The target of the Read Around The World Challenge is to read at least one book written by an author from each and every country in the world.
All books that are listed here as part of the "Read Around Europe Challenge" were written by authors from Estonia.
Find a great book for the next part of your reading journey around the world from this book list. The following popular books have been recommended so far.
1.
Baltic Belles : The Dedalus Book of Estonian Women's Literature by Elle-Mari Talivee EN
Description:
This anthology presents readers with a broad selection of fiction written between the late 19th century and today. The collection opens with the early realist Elisabeth Aspe, who described both village life and urban fear during the final decades of the 19th century. Early 20th-century works by female writers often discussed the young creative individual's encounters in the transformed urbanised world, some of the most outstanding examples of which are by the great Betti Alver. After World War II, Estonian writing bore the unmistakable signs of Soviet censorship. Nevertheless, Viivi Luik's mom... continue
2.
Brecht at Night by Mati Unt EN
Description:
"One of the most influential modernist, and latterly postmodernist, authors in Estonia." Context
3.
De gek van de tsaar by Jaan Kross NL
Description:
Een man die zijn belofte, de tsaar altijd de waarheid te vertellen gestand doet, wordt krankzinnig verklaard en tien jaar opgesloten.
4.
Die K-Gedichte by Robert Gernhardt DE
Description:
2 Gedichtzyklen, in denen R. Gernhardt zuerst seine Krebserkrankung begleitet und verarbeitet (K wie Krankheit, K wie Krebs), dann den Irak-Krieg auf seine Art kommentiert. / Roland Schwarz
5.
Pobeda 1946 : A Car Called Victory by Ilmar Taska EN
Description:
Ilmar Taska's debut novel captures the distrust and fear among Estonians living under Soviet occupation after World War II. The reader is transported to a world seen through the eyes of a young boy, where it is difficult to know who is right and who is wrong, be they occupiers or occupied.
6.
Professor Martens' Departure by Jaan Kross EN
Description:
Professor Martens is an elder statesman who has dutifully served the czarist regime. Near the end of his career and of his life, Martens is once again summoned to St. Petersberg. Traveling by train from his home in Parn?, he recalls his life of public service only to realize the terrible personal price he has paid and that he has helped perpetuate a brutal regime in his Baltic homeland.
7.
The Beauty of History : A Novel by Luik, Viivi EN
Description:
"1968. Riga. News of the Prague Spring washes across Europe, causing ripples on either side of the Iron Curtain. A young Estonian woman has agreed to pose as a model for a famous, sculptor, who is trying to evade military service and escape to the West. Although the model has only a vague awareness of politics -- her interest in life is primarily poetic -- the consequences of the politics of both past and present repeatedly make themselves felt. Chance remarks overheard prompt memories of people and places, language itself becomes fluid, by turns deceptive and reassuring. The Beauty of History... continue
8.
The Man Who Spoke Snakish by Andrus Kivirähk EN
Description:
Unfortunately people and tribes degenerate. They lose their teeth, forget their language, until finally they're bending meekly on the fields and cutting straw with a scythe. Leemut, a young boy growing up in the forest, is content living with his hunter-gatherer family. But when incomprehensible outsiders arrive aboard ships and settle nearby, with an intriguing new religion, the forest begins to empty - people are moving to the village and breaking their backs tilling fields to make bread. Meanwhile, Leemut and the last forest-dwelling humans refuse to adapt: with bare-bottomed primates and t... continue
9.
The Poet and the Idiot and Other Stories by Friedebert Tuglas EN
Description:
Nine stories and an essay written during WWI.
10.
The Ropewalker : Between Three Plagues Volume I by Jaan Kross EN
Description:
The first part in an epic historical trilogy - The Estonian answer to Wolf Hall - by the nation's greatest modern writer Jaan Kross's trilogy dramatises the life of the renowned Livonian Chronicler Balthasar Russow, whose greatest work described the effects of the Livonian War on the peasantry of what is now Estonia. Like Hilary Mantel's Thomas Cromwell, Russow is a diamond in the rough, a thoroughly modern man in an Early Modern world, rising from humble origins to greatness through wit and learning alone. As Livonia is used as a political football by the warring powers of Russia, Sweden, Pol... continue