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Kodutee
207 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1996
4 people want to read
About the author
Veera Saar
13 books1 followerVeera Saar (born Veera-Alise Döring, 28. III 1912 – 20. VII 2004) was an Estonian prose-writer and teacher.
She was born near Yamburg in Russia, whither her parents had emigrated from Kadrina parish near Tapa. The family returned to Estonia when the future writer was seven. In 1931 she graduated from Jõhvi Gymnasium, and in 1937 from the faculty of philosophy at the University of Tartu. In 1940 she defended her master’s thesis on the subject of folklore, Luust sõrmus ('The Bone Ring'). Academically she was a member of Lembela student sorority from 1935. From 1937 to 1958 she worked as a teacher of Estonian language and literature, in Tartu, Kehtna and Jäneda. From 1958 she lived at Aruküla (near Tallinn), where she wrote most of her books. Lõokesed taeva all ('Larks Under the Sky'), written while working as a teacher, brought the author second prize in a novel competition, the highest one to be awarded that year. This was a turning point in Veera Saar’s life. It was 1958 when the 46-year-old woman, threw in her lot with literature and gave up her teaching post where she was loved and appreciated.
Veera Saar’s realistic novels and short prose constitute a pithy and, especially with hindsight, in many respects characteristic chapter in the literature of Estonia in the second half of the twentieth century. Her works are a summary of complex times – emigrations and returns, deportations and wars, tenacious toil for the sake of one’s children’s future, regardless of the state system.
On the basis of Saar’s novel Ukuaru (1969), a film of the same name was made (1973, directed by Leida Laius), one of the classics of Estonian cinema. The strong female characters in both the novel and the film have been presented as Estonian archetypes.
L. P. (Translated by C. M.)
She was born near Yamburg in Russia, whither her parents had emigrated from Kadrina parish near Tapa. The family returned to Estonia when the future writer was seven. In 1931 she graduated from Jõhvi Gymnasium, and in 1937 from the faculty of philosophy at the University of Tartu. In 1940 she defended her master’s thesis on the subject of folklore, Luust sõrmus ('The Bone Ring'). Academically she was a member of Lembela student sorority from 1935. From 1937 to 1958 she worked as a teacher of Estonian language and literature, in Tartu, Kehtna and Jäneda. From 1958 she lived at Aruküla (near Tallinn), where she wrote most of her books. Lõokesed taeva all ('Larks Under the Sky'), written while working as a teacher, brought the author second prize in a novel competition, the highest one to be awarded that year. This was a turning point in Veera Saar’s life. It was 1958 when the 46-year-old woman, threw in her lot with literature and gave up her teaching post where she was loved and appreciated.
Veera Saar’s realistic novels and short prose constitute a pithy and, especially with hindsight, in many respects characteristic chapter in the literature of Estonia in the second half of the twentieth century. Her works are a summary of complex times – emigrations and returns, deportations and wars, tenacious toil for the sake of one’s children’s future, regardless of the state system.
On the basis of Saar’s novel Ukuaru (1969), a film of the same name was made (1973, directed by Leida Laius), one of the classics of Estonian cinema. The strong female characters in both the novel and the film have been presented as Estonian archetypes.
L. P. (Translated by C. M.)
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