The beauty of history
Subtitle: a novel
By: by Viivi Luik ; translated from the Estonian by Hildi Hawkins ; with an afterword by Richard C.M. Mole.
Series: Norvik Press series B -- no. 40; Series B (Norvik Press) -- no. 40.
Publisher: Norvik Press
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Norwich
Language: eng
Number of pages: 151
ISBN-13: 9781870041737
Subjects: Estonia -- History -- 1940-1991 -- Fiction
Genres: Fiction.
Work titles: Ajaloo ilu.
Description: "1968. Riga. News of the Prague Spring washes across Europe, causing ripples on either side of the Iron Curtain. A young Estonian woman has agreed to pose as a model for a famous, sculptor, who is trying to evade military service and escape to the West. Although the model has only a vague awareness of politics -- her interest in life is primarily poetic -- the consequences of the politics of both past and present repeatedly make themselves felt. Chance remarks overheard prompt memories of people and places, language itself becomes fluid, by turns deceptive and reassuring. The Beauty of History is a novel of poetic intensity, of fleeting moods and captured moments. It is powerfully evocative of life within the Baltic States during the Soviet occupation, and of the challenge to artists to express their individuality whilst maintaining at least an outward show of loyalty to the dominant ideology. Written on the cusp of independence, as Estonia and Latvia sought to regain their sovereignty in 1991, this is a novel that can be seen as an historic document -- wistful, unsettling, and beautiful"--Back cover.
Notes: Originally published with title: Ajaloo ilu. Tallinn : Eesti Raamat, 1991.