Summer Solstice
The novel opens in 2016, a few days before the summer solstice, but it soon becomes clear that much of what happens was set in motion long before. Trouble over land, a company brought down, tangled love affairs and friendships, and the question of whom – or what – to believe: it all fits into a single summer.
This story began a long, long time ago…
I was sixteen and my good friend Everi was fifteen. We were at a summer work camp together, and like young people everywhere, we dreamed. I dreamed that one day I would write a book, and Everi promised to draw a picture for it.
The years went by, full of doing and getting things done. And they kept going… Then one day I started to write. I wrote a number of professional texts, and about ten years ago “Raamatupidamise siseeeskirjad” (“Internal Accounting Rules”) made it between two covers. To this day, young people learning the secret art of accounting still find something useful in it for their schoolwork.
But my heart still wanted something more…
And so I began writing down stories. Because alongside the numbers, behind them and inside them, there are so many stories, and many of them have nothing to do with numbers at all. They are about people, and their fates. People always have puzzles and problems to solve – in the countryside as much as in the city.
There were so many stories to tell that in the end it grew into quite a substantial book. Most of them are true – things that happened to me or to people I know – but in the book I took a creator’s liberty, mixed them up, and wove them, as my imagination dictated, into an entirely new story. That is how “Suvine pööripäev” (“Summer Solstice”) was born.
I went to see my good friend Everi, who has illustrated a number of children’s books, and told her my book was finally finished. “All right!” said Everi. “I’ll draw the cover.” When I told her what the book was about, she decided, without a moment’s doubt, that a cat had to go on the cover. And she drew that cat in pencil. Not many people do that anymore; it is all computers and digital tools now. But every hair on that cat was drawn with a pencil, one by one.
Although the cat plays a big role in the book, it isn’t really a book about a cat. It is about people, and connections, and events. About wrangling over land, about the world of business, about friendship and love.
Eventually the book reached the bookshops and the online stores. At first there was some nervousness about how readers would take to it.
The feedback has been good, from readers of every age. When I heard that “Suvine pööripäev” had made the shortlist of five nominees for the A. H. Tammsaare Literary Award, I thought: well, these themes, and this book, must really speak to people…
You have to dream big. If you take steps toward your dreams, they will come true.
I wish everyone big dreams, the courage to get started, and the fulfillment of your fondest wishes!
If you would like to know more about the book, it has its own page on Facebook: “Suvine pööripäev”.
If you would like to buy a signed copy directly from the author, feel free to get in touch: anu@tahelend.ee
The book also makes a good gift for business partners, friends, mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers.
