Vaike Rannet

Vaike Rannet (until 1945 Vaike Trummel; 19. X 1925 – 23. I 1999) was a prose writer.

She was born in Tallinn; from 1932 to 1939 she attended number 9 primary school in Tallinn, and subsequently from 1939 to 1942 the Tallinn School of Business. From 1942 to 1944 she was a telephonist at Tallinn Exchange, and from 1944 to 1946 worked as a secretary at the Central Administration of the Labour Reserves.

In 1945 she married the playwright and prose writer Egon Rannet, whose private secretary, editor and carer she was until her husband’s death in 1983.

Vaike Rannet had made efforts in literature earlier, but only after Egon Rannet’s death did she realize herself as a writer. She completed the second part of Egon Rannet’s novel sequence Kivid ja leib (‘Stones and Bread’), which appeared in 1985 under both Egon Rannet’s and Vaike Rannet’s names. It was a success.

Under her own name and that of Egon Rannet, Vaike Rannet also wrote part III (1992) and part IV (1996) of the novel Kivid ja leib. These volumes also won a wide and attentive audience.

The parts written by Vaike Rannet follow in broad outline the plot of Egon Rannet’s play Südamevalu (‘Heartache’), but broaden and deepen it. These parts are lacking the Soviet ideology that characterized the beginning of the novel sequence. The focus of the sequence turns to the central, melodramatically depicted, love triangle.

L. P. (Translated by C. M.)

Books in Estonian

Novels
Egon Rannet, Vaike Rannet, Kivid ja leib. 2. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat, 1985. 654 lk.
Egon Rannet, Vaike Rannet, Kivid ja leib. 3. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat, 1992. 797 lk.
Egon Rannet, Vaike Rannet Kivid ja leib. 4. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat, 1996. 870 lk.