{"id":961,"date":"2024-04-03T23:40:35","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T20:40:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/aareleid\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T13:52:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T11:52:15","slug":"aareleid","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/a\/aareleid\/","title":{"rendered":"Kai Aareleid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Poems<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>\"Kai<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Novels<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Short stories<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plays<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

About Kai Aareleid<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kai Aareleid (b. 26. IX 1972) is an Estonian prose writer, poet and translator.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was born in Tartu, where she spent her first five years. From 1979 to 1990 she attended Tallinn 21st Secondary School; from 1990 to 1991 she studied psychology at the University of Tartu and then from 1991 to 1997 stagecraft at Theatre Academy Helsinki, from which she graduated with a master\u2019s degree. In 2001 she also qualified as a translator-editor at Tallinn Pedagogical University. From 1996 to 2006 she worked as an administrative assistant at the British Council office in Tallinn, and from 2012 to 2017 as an editor for the magazine Loomingu Raamatukogu<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aareleid\u2019s first story, Madonna<\/em>, appeared in the journal Looming<\/em> in 2003. She became well-known in 2011 with her novel Vene veri<\/em> (\u2018Russian Blood\u2019). The first-person protagonist of it, as the spouse of a diplomat, finds herself living with her three children at the end of the first decade of this century in St. Petersburg, which seems \u2013 especially in view of the political situation at the time \u2013 a hostile environment. But in Russia the protagonist confronts her previously suppressed family history, and her partially Russian origins. The language of the novel is laconic and dense. Vene veri<\/em> earned enthusiastic and positive responses in Estonia as soon as it appeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tiina, the protagonist of Aareleid\u2019s second novel, Linnade p\u00f5letamine<\/em> (\u2018The Burning of Cities\u2019, 2016), recalls her childhood and adolescence in Tartu after the Second World War, with its many ruins and wastelands. As a child Tiina comes into contact with the adult world, which in the Soviet era was full of cryptic conversations, unnamed terrors and heavy drinking. Tiina is a witness to the effects of Stalin\u2019s death on society, her father\u2019s addiction to card-playing and her parents\u2019 divorce, unable to prevent the tragedy that has changed her life: a suicide in the family. Great attention is paid to Tiina\u2019s immediate surroundings in Tartu. The novel won positive criticism, and has been translated into several languages. For Linnade p\u00f5letamine<\/em> Aareleid won the Estonian Writer of the Year 2016 award at the literary festival held at the Juhan Liiv Museum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aareleid\u2019s third novel, The Pacific Ocean (2021), is also partly set in St. Petersburg. It examines the complex relationships between the main character\u2019s parents in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as her own turbulent marriage in contemporary setting. The novel won the Tammsaare Literary Prize and the Baltic Assembly literary prize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kai Aareleid has published short prose, mainly in Looming<\/em>; for the short story Tango<\/em>\u00a0(Looming<\/em>, 2012), she won the Tuglas Short Story Prize. In 2018 Salaelud<\/em> (\u2018Secret Lives\u2019), a collection of stories and miniatures, was published. Aareleid has also published two collections of poetry, both of which appeared in 2015: Naised teel<\/em> (\u2018Women on the Road\u2019) and Vihm ja vein<\/em> (\u2018Rain and Wine\u2019).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kai Aareleid is a productive translator. She has translated into Estonian from English, Spanish, Finnish, Portuguese and French: works by Jukka Viikil\u00e4, Michael Ignatieff, Bruce Chatwin, Paulo Coelho, Arturo P\u00e9rez-Reverte, Carlos Ruiz Zaf\u00f3n, Javier Mar\u00edas, Roberto Bola\u00f1o, Enrique Vila-Matas, Jorge Luis Borges, Juan Jos\u00e9 Mill\u00e1s and Isabel Allende.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

S.V. (Translated by C. M.)<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Official Facebook page<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n


Books in Estonian<\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Poems<\/em><\/strong><\/span>
Naised teel<\/strong>. Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus, 2015, 103 lk.<\/span>
Vihm ja vein<\/strong>. Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus, 2015, 63 lk.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Novels<\/em><\/strong><\/span>
Vene veri<\/strong>. Tallinn: Varrak, 2011, 199 lk. [E-raamat: 2011.]<\/span>
Linnade p\u00f5letamine<\/strong>. Tallinn: Varrak, 2017, 327 lk. [2. tr\u00fckk: 2025; E-raamat: 2016.]
Vaikne ookean<\/strong>. Tallinn: Varrak, 2021, 283 lk. [2. tr\u00fckk: 2022.]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Short stories<\/em><\/strong><\/span>
Salaelud<\/strong>. Novelle ja miniatuure. Tallinn: Varrak, 2018, 149 lk.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

N\u00e4idendid<\/em><\/strong>
Linnade p\u00f5letamine<\/strong>. P\u00f5hineb samanimelisel romaanil. Tallinn: Eesti Draamateater, 2019, 128 lk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Poems\u00a0 Novels Short stories Plays About Kai Aareleid Kai Aareleid (b. 26. IX 1972) is an Estonian prose writer, poet and translator. She was born in Tartu, where she spent her first five years. From 1979 to 1990 she attended …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"parent":485,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-961","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=961"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7860,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/961\/revisions\/7860"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}