Author archives: zoneplus

A Perfect Day

By Eva Koff
ELM 2/2018
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"A Perfect Day" is a new ELM column, in which individuals associated with literature in Estonia share their recipes for a perfect day. The f...

Vahur Afanasjev
Serafima and Bogdan

Translated by Adam Cullen
ELM 2/2018
•••
  Excerpt from the chapter “Deportation”   The widow Glafira’s sauna has been heated. Sitting in the cramped dressing roo...

The Dodo’s decision

By Maarja Kangro
ELM 2/2018
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“Everybody has won and all must have prizes.”   Those are the Dodo’s words in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, and both James F. E...

Olle Lauli
The Abyss

By Oliver Berg
ELM 2/2018
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Olle Lauli, Kuristik (The Abyss) Tallinn, Gallus, 2018. 439 pp ISBN 9789949720637 Olle Lauli, writing under a pseudonym, is inarguably ...

Berk Vaher
Behind the Corner of the Eye

By Maarja Helena Meriste
ELM 2/2018
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Berk Vaher, Silmanurga taga (Behind the Corner of the Eye) Elusamus 2018, 56 pp. ISBN 9789949884346 The title Silmanurga taga (Behind the...

Andra Teede
Tall Men, Long Lives

By Maarja Helena Meriste
ELM 2/2018
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Andra Teede, Pikad mehed, pikad elud (Tall Men, Long Lives) Jumalikud ilmutused, 2018. 70 pp. ISBN 9789949519934 Andra Teede is a poet an...

Indrek Hargla
The Three-Spirit Stone

By Peeter Helme
ELM 2/2018
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Indrek Hargla, Kolmevaimukivi (The Three-Spirit Stone) Raudhammas, 2018. 425 pp ISBN 9789949985166   This spring, Indrek Hargla...

Rein Raud –
A cosmopolitan with roots

An interview by Joonas Hellerma
ELM 1/2018
•••
The Estonian public knows Rein Raud foremost as an intellectual and a scholar of the humanities who doesn’t balk at speaking up in discussio...

Doris Kareva
High tension captured in bare palms

An interview by Jürgen Rooste
ELM 1/2018
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I’ve known Doris Kareva for many years. I know her to be a good person, editor, and poet, who works persistently to help and publish other p...

Love doesn’t exist
in a vacuum

By Maarja Vaino
ELM 1/2018
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Published in 1935, I Loved a German (Ma armastasin sakslast) was the seventh novel written by the Estonian literary classic A. H. Tammsaare ...

Rein Raud
Bell and Hammer

Translated by Adam Cullen
ELM 1/2018
•••
  Undivere Manor, North-Central Estonia. 1979.   Arno was left alone in the lounge of the sauna house. I suppose I should...

Eeva Park
Sensuous and social

By Johanna Ross
ELM 2018/1
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A woman furtively squeezes the rounded surfaces of hard, unripe pears in her purse: she must somehow change the mind of a man who is threate...

Poetry by Eeva Park

Translated by Adam Cullen
ELM 1/2018
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* It wasn't I who made you this way said Darwin, the divine intuitive care of genetics opted to give you light hair and a dark l...

A regular writer’s salary: Really?

By Piret Põldver
ELM 1/2018
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Estonia is a small country where people generally can’t make a living purely on art and literature: the market simply isn’t large enough. ...

Eva Koff
Blue Mountain

By Erik Aru
ELM 1/2018
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Eva Koff, Sinine mägi (Blue Mountain) Tallinn, Varrak, 2017. 440 pp ISBN 9789985342213 Eva Koff’s Blue Mountain, which shared 2nd and 3...

Vahur Afanasjev
Serafima and Bogdan

By Peeter Helme
ELM 1/2018
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Vahur Afanasjev, Serafima ja Bogdan (Serafima and Bogdan) Vemsa, 2017. 560 pp ISBN  9789949880355 The plot of Vahur Afanasjev’s opus ma...

Carolina Pihelgas
Details of Darkness

By Maarja Helena Meriste
ELM 2018/1
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Carolina Pihelgas, Pimeduse pisiasjad (Details of Darkness) Kaksikhammas, 2017, 84 pp ISBN 9789949999101 Carolina Pihelgas’s fifth poet...

Hasso Krull
We Carried the Ladder with Us

By Maarja Helena Meriste
ELM 1/2018
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Hasso Krull, Kandsime redelit kaasas (We Carried the Ladder with Us) Tartu, Kaksikhammas, 2017, 64 pp ISBN  9789949880188 Carolina Pihe...

Madli Lippur
June/Julien

By Erik Aru
ELM 1/2018
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Madli Lippur, June/Julien Tallinn, Tänapäev, 2016. 328 pp ISBN 9789949850280 Madli Lippur’s highly praised debut June / Julien is a nov...

Jan Kaus
Compass

By Peeter Helme
ELM 1/2018
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Jan Kaus, Kompass. Miniatuurromaan (Compass. A short prose novel) Hea Lugu, 2017. 111 pp ISBN  9789949589647 Although Jan Kaus has penn...

Triin Soomets
Free Money

By Maarja Helena Meriste
ELM 1/2018
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Triin Soomets, Vaba raha (Free Money) Tallinn, Nynorden 2017. 64 pp ISBN: 9789949960071   Triin Soomets is known foremost as an...

Andrei Ivanov
Bathyscaphe

By Oliver Berg
ELM 1/2018
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Andrei Ivanov, Batüskaaf (Bathyscaphe) Tallinn: Tänapäev, 2017. 335 pp. ISBN  9789949851713  Andrei Ivanov’s world cannot simply be rea...

Paavo Matsin
The Black Sun

By Erik Aru
ELM 1/2018
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Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzmatsin (Paavo Matsin) Must päike (The Black Sun) Lepp ja Nagel, 2017, 192 pp EAN   9789789949885 Paavo Matsin...

Maimu Berg
A women’s self-esteem booster

By Aita Kivi
ELM 2/2017
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The Estonian writer and politician Maimu Berg (71) mesmerizes readers with her audacity in directly addressing some topics that are even see...

Maarja Kangro
The pain treshold

An interview by Tiina Kirss
ELM 2/2017
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Several years ago, Maarja Kangro began publishing bold, sometimes stylistically grating and riotous poetry and prose in Estonian. She is als...

Maarja Kangro
The Glass Child

Translated by Adam Cullen
ELM 2/2017
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Wednesday, January 28th, 2015, ~3:00 PM   My throat hurt and felt swollen. At first, I thought I’d caught a cold from the open wi...

Poetry by Vladislav Koržets

Translated by Adam Cullen
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Cycle The night before last Wednesday, my pup died of infection, and was laid to rest out back until the resurrection. He won’t be poki...

Vladislav Koržets
“Here I am now!”

By Jürgen Rooste
ELM 2/2017
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Vladislav Koržets (1951) is a long-time celebrity Estonian writer and fisherman, whose poetry debut Songs or Such (Laulud või nii) appeared ...

Siuru
in the winds of freedom

By Elle-Mari Talivee
ELM 2/2017
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Siuru, a literary group of the utmost importance in Estonia’s cultural context, was founded in May 1917. It was the second-to-last year of W...

Fear and loathing
in little villages

By Mari Klein
ELM 2/2017
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Over the last few years, the writers Birk Rohelend and Katrin Pauts have set out to enrich the Estonian crime genre with grim, trying tales ...

Job Lisman
Being led by literature

An interview by ELM
ELM 1/2017
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Job Lisman is the editorial director of Prometheus/Bert Bakker Publishers in the Netherlands, which publishes such bestselling authors as Je...

Estonian Literary Awards
2016

By Piret Viires
ELM 2/2017
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Jaan Kaplinski received a lifetime creative achievement award from the Republic of Estonia. Andrei Ivanov was likewise recognized for his cr...

Urmas Vadi
Neverland

By Peeter Helme
ELM 2/2017
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Urmas Vadi. Neverland Kolm Tarka, 2017. 352 pp Issues of identity remain topical in Estonian literature, and are addressed by Urmas Vadi...

Armin Kõomägi
The Secret
of My Eroticism

By Peeter Helme
ELM 2/2017
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Armin Kõomägi. Minu erootika saladus. (The Secret of My Eroticism) Sebastian Loeb, 2017. 238 pp Kõomägi has commented that the most intr...

Maimu Berg
Hitler in Mustjala

By Peeter Helme
ELM 2/2017
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Maimu Berg. Hitler Mustjalas (Hitler in Mustjala) Short Stories Tuum, 2016. 221 pp Hitler sells; it’s true. He’s become one of modern s...

Eda Ahi
Harbor

By Jürgen Rooste
ELM 2/2017
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Eda Ahi. Sadam (Harbor) Tallinn, Verb, 2017. 48 pp ISBN 9789949984152 Eda Ahi is a self-standing great of contemporary Estonian poetry....

Elo Viiding
Consciousmaker

By Jürgen Rooste
ELM 2/2017
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Elo Viiding, Teadvuselooja (Consciousmaker). Tallinn, Tuum, 2016. 64 pp ISBN 9789949979431 Consciousmaker begins in a psycho-mythologic...

Kristjan Haljak
Conceptio Immaculata

By Jürgen Rooste
ELM 2/2017
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Kristjan Haljak. Conceptio Immaculata. Tallinn, Vihmakass ja Kakerdaja, 2017. 65 pp ISBN 9789949811212 Kristjan Haljak is the only cred...

Triin Soomets
Chosen Qualities

By Jürgen Rooste
ELM 1/2017
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Triin Soomets, Valitud omadused (Chosen Qualities) Tallinn, Tuum, 2016. 327 pp. ISBN: 9789949979424 Chosen Qualities (Valitud omadused)...

Tarmo Teder
Andrus’ Life and Joy

By Jürgen Rooste
ELM 1/2017
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Tarmo Teder, Andruse elu ja õnn (Andrus’ Life and Joy) Tallinn, Eesti Keele Sihtasutus, 2016. 102 pp. ISBN: 9789985796795 Tarmo Teder (19...

Katrin Johanson
Atlantis in a Cove

By Peeter Helme
ELM 1/2017
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Katrin Johanson, Atlantis abajas (Atlantis in a Cove) Tallinn, Varrak, 2016. 160 pp. ISBN: 9789985337967 Katrin Johanson’s (1972) entra...

Maarja Kangro
The Glass Child

By Jürgen Rooste
ELM 1/2017
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Maarja Kangro, Klaaslaps (The Glass Child) Tallinn, Nähtamatu Ahv, 2016. 208 pp. ISBN: 9789949813629 Maarja Kangro (1973) has been one ...

Eeva Park
Pets’ Paradise

By Peeter Helme
ELM 1/2017
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Eeva Park, Lemmikloomade paradiis (Pets’ Paradise) Tallinn, Verb, 2016. 239 pp ISBN: 9789949984138 Eeva Park (1950) is one of those rar...

Silvia Urgas
It´s just about late enough

Translated by Adam Cullen
ELM 1/2017
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it’s just about late enough that the clock hands show you’re-a dope-for-caring- but-time-for-us-to-have-one-more-drink-now and some guy i...

Mihkel Mutt
The Estonian Circumciser

Translated and commented by Adam Cullen
ELM 1/2017
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With Mihkel Mutt’s (1953) first novel since his hefty work The Cavemen Chronicle (2012), the unparalleled master of Estonian irony has emerg...

Nikolai Baturin:
A celebrated stranger

By Berk Vaher
ELM 1/2017
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How can one explain Nikolai Baturin’s works and creative identity to someone from a different and distant culture, when they are quite the m...

Eda Ahi
Dance lessons with gravity

Translated by Adam Cullen
ELM 1/2017
•••
they dance with you, gravity, everyone. but only the brave know the steps they should take. you’ve got that cruel but equalizing trait: b...

Kelly Turk
Where do little fat girls go?

Translated by Adam Cullen
ELM 1/2017
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where do little fat girls go when insulted beneath clotheslines behind a house to practice to practice a speech for getting back at ...

Five Snow Whites
and not a single prince

By Carolina Pihelgas
ELM 1/2017
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Writing about female poets, one inevitably arrives at a disturbing thought: why are some women regarded as poets, and others as poetesses? T...

Indrek Koff
Stories of a Hundred Nations

Translated by Adam Cullen
ELM 1/2017
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A fairy tale about warm light. A fairy tale about the hundred faces of loneliness. A reflective fairy tale about your life. A fairy tale ...

Paavo Matsin
The Gogol Disco

Translated by Adam Cullen
ELM 1/2017
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Cutlets for Gogol Katerina had been crying over Grigory’s disappearance the entire day, alone downstairs. She finally pulled herself togeth...

Paavo Matsin’s performances

By Jan Kaus
ELM 1/2017
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I last saw Paavo Matsin (1970) at a museum that honors the Estonian literary classic Eduard Vilde, where we were both scheduled to speak. We...

Poetry by Veronika Kivisilla

Translated by Adam Cullen
ELM 2/2016
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Too nice a drunk locking up my bike in front of the store a babbling drunk approached me I wanted to withdraw but he said listen you...

Two Captains – Excerpt fromWe All Fall Down

Translated by Adam Cullen
ELM 2/2016
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1960 They meet up at Tiina’s house after school. Tiina puts her bag in her room and follows Vova, because he wants to show her his turtle...

Jaan Kaplinski
The last laureate?


ELM 2/2016
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In February 2016, compelling news rang out: Jaan Kaplinski was awarded the European Prize for Literature. The award, which is sponsored by t...

Jan Kaus
The Book of Closeness

By Paul Raud
ELM 2/2016
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Jan Kaus, Läheduste raamat (The Book of Closeness) Tallinn, Verb, 2016. 72 pp ISBN: 9789949969067 The miniature, just like many other f...

Our Leelo

By Mare Müürsepp
ELM 2/2016
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I’ll start with children’s own assessment. Together with third-grade students, we drafted a list of important public figures in Estonia base...

Some who Live the Estonian language

By ELM
ELM 2/2016
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The Estonian Literature Center has a magnificent tradition of inviting translators of Estonian literature who hail from all around the world...

Prophecy by Jüri Kolk

Translated by Adam Cullen
ELM 2/2016
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An oracle proclaimed to a Theban king that he would live a long and happy life — not one younger kinsman would slay him. We would never h...

Jüri Kolk
Seeking the immortal soul

By Kaupo Meiel
ELM 2/2016
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Just about a year ago, Jüri Kolk, Jan Kaus, Karl Martin Sinijärv, and I were reading our own works and a pinch of others’ to a nearly full h...

Karl-Martin Sinijärv
KMSX: How to Say

By Jürgen Rooste
ELM 2/2016
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Karl Martin Sinijärv, KMSX: Kuidas öelda (KMSX: How to Say) Tallinn, Näo Kirik, 2016. 96 pp ISBN: 9789949980901 Karl Martin Sinijärv (1...

Mehis Heinsaar
The Killing Growth of Dreams

By Jürgen Rooste
ELM 2/2016
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Mehis Heinsaar, Unistuste tappev kasvamine (The Killing Growth of Dreams) Tallinn, Menu Publishing, 2016. 232 pp ISBN: 9789949549245 Me...

Meelis Friedenthal
The Language of Angels

By Jürgen Rooste
ELM 2/2016
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Meelis Friedenthal, Inglite keel (The Language of Angels) Tallinn, Varrak, 2016. 208 pp ISBN: 9789985337004 Meelis Friedenthal (1973) i...

P. I. Filimonov
She Sang to the End

By Jürgen Rooste
ELM 2/2016
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P. I. Filimonov, Laulis, kuni kõik lõppes (She Sang to the End) Tallinn, Varrak, 2016. 312 pp Translated into Estonian from the Russian by...

Silvia Urgas
Destnation

By Paul Raud
2/2016
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Silvia Urgas, Siht/koht (Destination) Tartu, Elusamus, 2015. 48 pp. ISBN 9789949387083  Silvia Urgas (1992) is one of Estonia’s newest ...

Poetry by Juhan Viiding

Translated by Miriam McIlfatrick-Ksenofontov
ELM 1/2016
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SIMPLE POEM happiness once came into the yard and the yard was ever so happy then happiness came into the room and the room was ever so ...

The many voices
of Estonian drama

By Heidi Aadma
ELM 1/2016
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Ten years ago was the one-hundredth anniversary of professional Estonian theatre. To celebrate the grand occasion, Pärnu’s Endla Theatre mad...

Insanity in Estonian literature

By Maarja Vaino
ELM 1/2016
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According to US literary critic Shoshana Felman, insanity is an obsession of contemporary literature: stories being told are almost exclusiv...

The irony of hope

By Adam Cullen
ELM 1/2016
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"How’s that—we do have freedom now, don’t we?" Sõrgats insisted. "Well, we do," Lumepart said, "but what am I supposed to do with that?" ...

Urmas Lennuk
Once, in Estonia

By Jan Kaus
ELM 1/2016
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Urmas Lennuk, Ükskord Eestimaal (Once, in Estonia) Viljandi, Ugala teater, 2015. 294 pp ISBN: 9789949387342 Urmas Lennuk (b 1971) has b...

Paavo Matsin
The Gogol Disco

By Jan Kaus
ELM 1/2016
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Paavo Matsin, Gogoli disko (The Gogol Disco) Viljandi, Lepp ja Nagel, 2015. 144 pp. ISBN: 9789949386918 Paavo Matsin (b 1970) is an ins...

Rein Raud
The Death of the Perfect Sentence

By Peeter Helme
ELM 1/2016
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Rein Raud, Täiusliku lause surm (The Death of the Perfect Sentence) Tallinn, Mustvalge Kirjastus, 2015. 176 pp ISBN: 9789949947386 Rein...

Olavi Ruitlane
On the Water

By Peeter Helme
ELM 1/2016
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Olavi Ruitlane, Vee peal (On the Water) Tallinn, ZA/UM, 2015. 196 pp ISBN: 9789949384693   Olavi Ruitlane (b 1969) is a Souther...

Jürgen Rooste
The Ideal Husband

By Carolina Pihelgas
ELM 1 /2016
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Jürgen Rooste, Ideaalne abikaasa (The Ideal Husband) Saarde-Pärnu, Ji, 2015, 107 pp ISBN: 9789949519552 Jürgen Rooste (b 1979) is one o...

Lauri Sommer
Once

By Carolina Pihelgas
ELM 1/2016
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Lauri Sommer, Kunagi: 2008–2015 (Once: 2008–2015) Räestu, Tiivaalune, 2015, 86 pp Although Lauri Sommer (b 1973) made his debut in 1998 as...