Treasure of world literature, Mika Waltar’s great novels are now all available in the modern Estonian language: “Sinuhe”, “Secret Riigi”, “Turms, immortal”, “Johannes Angelos”, “Enemies of humanity”, “Mikael Karvajalg ” and “Mikael Hakim”.
Historical novels are perhaps the most valuable part of the work of the most famous Finnish writer Mika Waltar. In them we find the most important reference points for a person’s destiny. “Mikael Hakim” is the most voluminous of Waltar’s historical novels and now reaches the Estonian reader in a new translation and in its entirety. Short novels still available or soon to be released: “The Grand Illusion”, “Fine van Brooklyn”, “Four Sunsets”, “A Stranger Came to the Farm” and “Felix Happy”.
Finnish Mikael Hakim is known from the novel “Mikael the Short-legged”. During the revolutionary years of Europe, when the streets of his cities were trampled by the Turks, Mikael also becomes a slave of the conqueror. He embraces Islam, he is Mohammedan and his most sacred truth is the truth of the Koran. The reader’s eye catches the cover of this book in its original language: “In the name of the merciful and generous God”. Written with Waltari’s characteristic precision of detail, the novel with an exciting course of events reveals to the reader Mikael’s future life and his ability to get out of impossible situations.
Mika Waltari (1908–1979) is well known to Estonian readers. Many of his works have been translated into Estonian, and new translations of several works have also been published. Waltari is certainly one of the most read authors in Finnish literature. He wrote historical novels, short novels, plays, poems, short stories, detective novels. The world, including Estonia, especially appreciates Mika Waltar’s historical novels. The author moves through the time and environment of his novels with a perceptive naturalness and somehow imperceptibly accompanies the reader. He knows the subject of his works very thoroughly, and sometimes it happens that Waltari predicts things that scientists find confirmation only later, after the publication of the book. Furthermore, Waltar’s historical novels have a very modern mindset, even though the action takes place hundreds, sometimes even thousands, of years ago.
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2024-01-10 19:48:19
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