Xavier Bouvet (1984) is a French writer living in Estonia. As Bouvet’s debut, the documentary novel Le Bateau Blanc shows, he has lived a very meaningful life in Estonia, spurred by his interest in local culture, as the focus of Le Bateau Blanc is on one of the most difficult periods in our recent history, the autumn of 1944, the moment when some Estonian politicians made an attempt to restore an independent Republic of Estonia, pressured by the retreating Wehrmacht on the one side, and the advancing Red Army on the other. Bouvet focuses on the efforts of Otto Tief and Jüri Uluots, based on the idea of legal continuity, to try to accomplish something almost impossible. In addition, Bouvet describes the last moments of one of our most important poets, Marie Under, on Estonian soil – a motif that makes the book a kind of introduction to the legacy of Estonian literature in exile. The work also makes for instructive reading – historical in its content, but a fictional experiment in its form, it is a suitable way to introduce a complex era in the history of our country; a situation we will hopefully never find ourselves in again.
Performs at
| Date | Event Name | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday, 1 June at 13:00 | Xavier Bouvet and Linda Kaljundi | Estonian Writers’ Union |
