Lilli Luug's "A Brief War History," a powerful book about the fate of Estonian people

Lilli Luug's new collection of stories "A Brief War History" tells of ordinary Estonians, forest brothers, Finns who fought for Hitler, boat refugees and deportees. The work is a sort of sequel to the author's earlier novel "The Nightmother," but even more concentrated and emotionally powerful. Readers await terrifying and breathtaking human stories.

Lilli Luug's story collection "A Brief War History" is a work that makes the reader feel small and humble, and that is a compliment. The book brings together stories of people whom history has shaken to their core: forest brothers who resisted in the woods for years, Finns who went to fight in a foreign war, boat refugees who crossed the sea with fear in their hearts, and deportees whose fate was equally tragic.

In form, it is a collection of novellas or short stories, which gives the author the opportunity to distil each story separately and get to its essence. Luug has used this opportunity with a master's touch; each story is a complete work in itself, but together they form a rich and painfully beautiful mosaic of the Estonian human experience through war and violence.

"A Brief War History" has a clear kinship with the earlier novel "The Nightmother": the same historical material, the same empathetic eye for human suffering. Yet the short story form has produced a denser and more forceful result. Where a novel allows itself to develop at length, here each story strikes the reader directly in the heart, and does not let go.

The strength of the work lies precisely in the fact that Luug does not write about heroes or villains in an abstract manner. She writes about people, their fears, their choices and moments when the situation left no good path. This makes the book both honest and difficult. "A Brief War History" is one of those books that is not read quickly or lightly, but which is worth reading.