Toomas Vint

Eric Dickens

An Unending Landscape is a subtle, humorous, mind-bending novel about the origins and fates of three different manuscripts or whether these stories relate to one another like Russian dolls, or are three parallel versions of the same events.

An Unending Landscape

Jaan Kross

Translated by Eric Dickens Treading Air follows the life of Ullo Paerand through 30 years of violent political upheaval. Abandoned by his father as a child, he grows up to become an electoral assistant to the parliamentary office in Tallinn and it is in this position that Ullo witnesses first the Soviet and then the German occupation of Estonia. Forced out of his honest profession Ullo becomes involved with the Resistance but, when many Estonians flee the country, he chooses to remain. An interlude of a decade shows much has changed since the end of the War; Soviet influence is marked in the style of government and the manner of the people. The narrative unfolds in stories imparted to an unknown "author" by a 70-year-old Ullo. Just before the end, however, Kross introduces a teasing ambiguity: Ullo dies before he is able to answer the last question about his life.

Treading Air

Jaan Kross's historical novel Sailing Against the Wind fictionalizes the life of Bernhard Schmidt (1879-1935), an Estonian-born inventor. Schmidt lost an arm in his youth while experimenting with a homemade rocket, resulting in psychological trauma that would plague him for the rest of his life. Largely self-taught, Schmidt was driven to seek recognition of his talents. He moved to Germany in the 1930s, where, after perfecting techniques for polishing lenses, he began developing ideas for improving astronomical telescopes. He was arrested for selling one to the Russians, and although he got off with only a warning, he later suffered a breakdown and was sent to a mental hospital, where he soon died. Sailing Against the Wind becomes a meditation on national identity, the relationship between history and the individual life, and the mechanisms of the historical novel as a genre.

A Novel

Sailing Against the Wind

Mati Unt

"One of the most influential modernist, and latterly postmodernist, authors in Estonia." Context

Brecht at Night

Paul Vincent

This is the eighth volume in Dedalus's highly acclaimed European literary fantasy series and follows volumes from Austrian, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. During the nineteenth-century, Belgian literature was still largely written in the language of education, French. Then the Flemings, who inhabit the northern half of Belgium, became aware of the value of their own language, whose standardised form is, to all intents and purposes, Dutch. Modern Flemish literature was born. This anthology incorporates fantasy stories from the early twentieth century to the present day. The types of fantasy are various: horror, mysticism and magical realism being the dominant ones. One of the early authors is Felix Timmermans who started out with horror stories, but later ended up writing his inimitable Vitalist novels. Two magic realist authors stand out: Johan Daisne and Hubert Lampo. And horror is well represented by several authors including Hugo Claus, Hugo Raes and Ward Ruyslinck - all household names in Flanders. Interesting new authors include Annelies Verbeke and Peter Verhelst.

Eric Dickens

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