Wschodni Express | Book launch: Kristiina Ehin „Planeta pożeraczy serc”, translated by Marta Perlikiewicz
8.07 | 16.00 – 17.30 | Bałagan – patio, Grodzka 5a | PL
Guest: Marta Perlikiewicz. Host: Olga Wiewióra
Kristiina Ehin’s prose is characterised by imaginative storytelling and a profound insight into reality. Her allegorical images allow for descriptions of emotions that may escape the reader in a realistic narrative. The Estonian writer depicts patterns that shape our behavior, guiding our lives and relationships. Her characters strive to find true love. Some suffer at the hands of fate but never cease their search, while others discover a treasure and face the question of how to maintain their newfound happiness. Ehin’s stories are full of allegories, written with a sense of peculiar absurdity and surrealism, much like fairy tales where every other sentence may surprise us with unexpected twists.
Kristiina Ehin, born in 1977 in Rapla, is an Estonian poet and short story writer. She studied Estonian and comparative folk poetry at the University of Tartu. In her native language, she has so far published ten volumes of poetry, three collections of short stories, modern retellings of folk tales from southern Estonia, and a volume of autobiographical reflections. She is also the author of two theatre plays and poetic audio dramas. Ehin’s works combine everyday life with mythological elements. She received the most prestigious Estonian poetry award for her collection „Kaitseala” (Huma, 2005), which includes poems and journal entries she wrote while working as a nature reserve guard on an uninhabited island off the northern coast of Estonia. Her recent books in Estonian have been all bestsellers from 2019 to 2023.