26 лип. 2019 р.

Questions on Estonian fiction books

When I arrived in Estonia in 2016, I didn't know anything about this country, except for the fact that Estonia, like Ukraine, was a part of the USSR and its language is quite different from all, which I’ve studied previously. Over time I learnt that modern Estonia steadily supports Ukraine not only on a diplomatic level, but also through individual acts of ordinary people, especially after 2014, when Russian aggression and occupation have started. I felt that I should learn Estonian, because if I speak Russian for example in cafe, I shall not differ from an occupant… Last October, I’ve passed B1 exam and my immersion into Estonian continues — next September I plan to pass B2 exam.

Naturally, studying language, I couldn’t pass by the Estonian history and literature. Unfortunately, my skills do not allow me to read the prominent Estonian authors yet, so I started with modern fiction for both young and adult people (Ilmar Tomusk, Indrek Hargla, translations of Jules Verne, Isaac Asimov etc). At the same time, I continue to read science fiction and fantasy books in Polish, Russian and Ukraine languages, sometimes Belorussian and English and one day, visiting RahvaRaamat bookstore, I realized, that there are fewer books of this kind in Estonian, than for example in Polish (of course, I can be mistaken, because I do not see the whole body of Estonian literature), and that seems to be an interesting question. If it is true, than what the possible reason or number of reasons would be (e. g. small country population, tendency to be rational, knowledge of English, which allows to find non-Estonian books of this genre, or something else). If it is not true, it would be a good idea to make these books more popular.

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