Novel
Janu
Not translated into English
Valev Uibopuu · 1957
Synopsis
Maria, a teenage girl with bone tuberculosis, is confined to her bed; a young doctor with new methods changes her treatment: splints and long hours in the open air. Lying on the veranda, in the garden or in her room, from spring until the beginning of winter, she watches the year go by, and everything happens to her more intensely than to the healthy: hope and discouragement, revolt against the doctor's orders, a first love and its disappointments, and even the fear of losing, along with the illness, the special place it gave her.
Context
The novel appeared in Lund in 1957 from Eesti Kirjanike Kooperatiiv, the publishing house its author was then running; it was not reissued in Estonia until 1997, by Kupar. Uibopuu had himself suffered from bone tuberculosis in his youth and drew on that memory. Everything passes through Maria's inner voice: external events are rare, and it is the intensity of the sick woman's perceptions, the nature around her and her emotions, that makes the book.
Who it is for
A little over three hundred pages in Estonian, never translated into French or English. It is worth knowing that the narrative is almost entirely an interior monologue.
Prizes and reception
Ranked by the Tartu University dictionary of Estonian writers among the high points of its author's work.