Novel
Soolased tuuled
Not translated into English
Evald Mänd · 1944
Synopsis
On the coast of Hiiumaa, in the second half of the nineteenth century, Jürnas has to bear the burden of the farm from the age of fifteen. The hard work of the sea makes him a solid and enterprising man: he builds the first house with a chimney in the neighbourhood, then a three-master for the ocean, and in matters of the heart too he does not let himself be cast down. Life and work are thus passed on from one generation to the next, between the farm, the sails and the wind from the open sea.
Context
The novel first appeared as a serial in 1942 in Eesti Sõna, at the request of Albert Kivikas, who was its editor; the writer was trying his hand at the novel for the first time. In book form, it had an eventful fate: the print run burned with the State Printing House, bombed on 9 March 1944, and the book, reset from the surviving proofs, nevertheless appeared in Tallinn before the fighting arrived. It was reprinted in exile in 1946 and 1964, then in Estonia in 2001.
Who it is for
Nearly four hundred pages in Estonian, never translated into French or English. It is worth knowing that the book follows several generations of the same island family.
Prizes and reception
First novel by its author and one of his best-known books, printed in seven thousand copies in 1944.