Novel
Hüvasti, kollane kass
Not translated into English
Mati Unt · 1963
Synopsis
Aarne Veenpere, in his final year of secondary school, grew up in the countryside, where his mother lives on a kolkhoz; his father, who fell during the war in German uniform, he never knew. For his studies he lodges in Tartu with his aunt Ida, a woman of principles who has remained faithful to the ways of before the war, and living together in a single room turns into confrontation. Between classes, doubts about the meaning of school and a first love for Maia, he looks for his place in the world.
Context
The novel appeared in 1963 in Tipa-tapa, the almanac of Tartu's 8th secondary school, subtitled “naive novel”, then in volume form in Tallinn in 1967 with the story Võlg. Exceptionally frank for the time, it opened a controversy over the morals of young people. Unt rewrote it in 1992 under the title Tere, kollane kass!, and the two versions were brought together in 2008 in his collected works.
Who it is for
Three hundred pages in Estonian, never translated into French or English. It helps to know that the author wrote it as a schoolboy, at eighteen.
Prizes and reception
The book that made its author famous throughout Estonia, and one of the novels of the youth of the sixties.