Lilli Luuk (1976) is an Estonian writer. Previously working as an art historian and university lecturer, Luuk made her fiction debut slightly later, but she immediately made her mark – her debut short story Auk, published in the Looming magazine, was awarded the Tuglas Short Story Award in 2018. This has been followed by a truly extraordinary literary journey marked by praise of readers and substantial awards – it can already be said with confidence that Luuk is one of the most important prose authors of Estonian literature in the 2020s. To date, she has published three works, the most recent of which is the author’s second novel Ööema (2024), which received the A. H. Tammsaare Literature Prize and the Cultural Award of the Republic of Estonia. Ööema brings to mind the words of Merle Karusoo that things left unsaid tend to ferment into poison. Luuk continues an important tradition in Estonian literature that goes back to Arved Viirlaid and Ene Mihkelson – the opportunity to shed light on the untold stories of the recent past that have been fermenting in people’s souls. At the heart of Ööema are three women from one family, the elderly sisters Hinge and Virve, and their daughter Krissu, who, after a spot of cranberry-picking, begins to investigate the stories of her family, which reveal an era of difficult choices, to put it mildly. It is a wonder that some of our ancestors survived these choices, each paying their own price.
Performs at
| Date | Event Name | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday, 29 May at 16:00 | Lilli Luuk and Indrek Koff | Estonian Writers’ Union |
