Siiri Sisaski's New Book "Hästijätt" Looks Death in the Face

Siiri Sisaski's book "Hästijätt" explores life, death, and human roots in the land. The work weaves together the author's own memories and her grandmother's life story, including surviving the bombing of Tallinn in March. The book invites readers to contemplate life's most important questions through nature and memory.

Siiri Sisaski's new work "Hästijätt" is a book that does not shy away from speaking of life and death directly and honestly. The author takes readers along to the countryside and forest, where human roots run deep in the soil and where life and death walk hand in hand.

At the heart of the book are two women's stories: Siiri's own memories and fragments of her grandmother's life. Interwoven memory images create a multilayered picture of how generations influence each other and what it means to be a person rooted in the land. The stories passed down from the grandmother reach back to wartime, and particularly striking is the account of surviving the bombing of Tallinn in March, which represents one of the darkest chapters of recent history.

Siiri's own adventures add a personal and warm tone to the work. One of the most vivid episodes recounts a childhood journey to school, a small girl lost in a storm, searching for her way through the blizzard. These moments form the bone and sinew of the book: small human stories that carry great meaning.

"Hästijätt" is a work for those who value slowness in Estonian literature, attentiveness to the relationship between nature and humankind, and the courage to speak of what is often left unspoken-of old age, farewells, and what remains behind.