To be published: Q4 2025
The Death of a Perfect Sentence. The novel depicts Estonia’s final months under Soviet rule and offers a multifaceted and vivid picture of the days leading up to Estonian independence. It explores a time of fear and uncertainty, but also of hope and courage, when the forces of independence clashed with the USSR’s last-ditch efforts to preserve the old order. The novel features a group of young dissidents who devise a plan to smuggle copies of secret KGB files out of the country, but they are also helped by a Russian teacher and a young art student who gets involved in dissident activities almost by accident. The characters include KGB agents from both Russia and Estonia, as well as older Estonians who are content with the status quo.
We slowly uncover who is on which side and what their reasons are. Many fates intertwine, and chance encounters become fateful meetings. And when Maarja, an Estonian woman, meets a young Russian man, a romantic dimension is added to the political and espionage aspects of the novel.
The author’s attention to detail provides a convincing insight into the everyday life of Estonians and at the same time serves as a springboard for universal questions about interpersonal relationships and (dis)trust in those “interesting times” when history is being written and the old world is being replaced by a new one.