Same River Kaplinski Jaan
First novel in English translation by one of Estonia's leading contemporary writers. A semi-autobiographical Bildungsroman, set in the early 1960s, it narrates the efforts of Kaplinski's youthful…
Specifikacia Same River Kaplinski Jaan
First novel in English translation by one of Estonia's leading contemporary writers. A semi-autobiographical Bildungsroman, set in the early 1960s, it narrates the efforts of Kaplinski's youthful alter ego to lose his innocence and attain sexual and mystical knowledge. The twenty-year-old protagonist finds an unofficial teacher in a retired theologian and poet who is out of favor with the communist authorities. After a summer spent in intellectual and erotic soul-searching, the sexual and political intrigues finally overlap, leading to a quasi-solution. KGB and university apparatchiks take a close interest in the teacher-disciple relation of the two poets. The student outgrows his mentor, who despite accusing the human race of puerility, turns out to be a big and jealous child himself.