The Conspiracy & Other Stories

by Jaan Kross, Eric Dickens (Translator)

From one of Estonia's most renowned writers: "[Jaan Kross] begins to look more and more like a prime Nobel Prize contender."- Kirkus Reviews

Jaan Kross spent eight years in Soviet prison camps. In these stories his alter ego Peeter Mirk records events and conversations that show the imprisoned lives Estonians were forced to lead in their own homes and country. We read of thwarted attempts to escape, the dilemma of a man who must save himself by sacrificing a friend, a prisoner's practical joke that backfires, and the grinding necessity of facing one's fate.

Despite the black thunderclouds beneath which Peeter Mirk and his fellow inmates have to lead their daily lives, the irony and insight which permeate these tales make each one a pleasure to read. Moreover they throw light upon the essential identity of the former Soviet Baltic states in a way that no history text can. The stories in The Conspiracy show Jaan Kross at his best: a writer of honesty, humor, and wisdom.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

238 pages, Hardcover

First published May 4, 1995

About the author

Jaan Kross (1920 – 2007) was an Estonian writer. He has been tipped for the Nobel Prize for Literature on several occasions for his novels, but did in fact start his literary career as a poet and translator of poetry. On his return from the labour camps and internal exile in Russia, where he spent the years 1946-1954 as a political prisoner, Kross renewed Estonian poetry, giving it new directions.

Kross began writing prose in the latter half of the 1960s, first with a film scenario "A Livonian Chronicle" (Liivimaa kroonika) which dealt with the life of the author Balthasar Russow (1536-1600) and which also became the subject of his first masterpiece "Between Three Plagues" (Kolme katku vahel, 1970), a suit of four novels. From that time onwards Kross moved by stage nearer to our present time in history, describing figures from Estonian history, first in short stories and novellæ, later in novels, also in writings where he has drawn upon his own experiences. The heroes of his novels tend to be of Estonian or Baltic German origin and cultured people, though on the margins of society and are usually faced with a moral dilemma of some sort.

Reviews

[Jonfaith · Rating 3 out of 5]

My earlier review was hurried. My wife was going to a work mixer at a Cuban restaurant and I said I would drive her there. I then zoomed to buy a number of juicy texts Half_price.

This collection is likely between a 3 and 4; It has been eight years and stories appear to seep from my memory without leaving much effect. I bought this at sale after my wife first arrived. I enjoyed such, and found it ironic that Tibor Fischer was dismisisve in his review, citing Estonia as a minor nation or some such: go magyars!

[Christina Saarinen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting stories with strong recurring themes of coincidence, the absurdity of war, and fate. The selection of stories is interesting in that the same character recurs in various settings and life circumstances. As an adolescent going on dates, being in hiding, held in various prisons and being transported between them, and after the war, observing fellow travelers and how they discuss history, etc. All civilian perspectives, though.

The translation was rather uneven. Some of the stories were even a struggle to read and could use a good editing. The use of endnotes was irritating. In the last two stories, though, the language is suddenly clear and shines.

Despite any issues this collection may have, I’m still glad to have read it and feel like I have a fairly good feel for Kross now, plus more historical insight into Estonia.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Global Read Challenge 88: Estonia

These were linked short stories all involving the same protagonist who spends a lot of time avoiding or in prison. The stories were longer than I'm used to short stories being, and shorter than a novella, so reading them was interesting from that perspective. I really got attached to characters, and then their stories just ended for me. The writing was incredibly haunting and there are images seared into my brain. Overall, it was a really dark book which isn't shocking given the time period and location. I also think the translator was incredibly dedicated as each story had a series of end notes explaining why things were translated a certain way or why a phrase couldn't be translated.

[Carol Palmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really excellent writing. In fact, when I first started reading this book, the writing was so outstanding that I wondered if this was on Boxall's 1001 books list. Well, this book wasn't, but one of the author's other books was.

This story of an Estonian citizen spans the decades from the 1930s to the 1960s. It includes the time between WWI and WWII, WWII German occupation, and post-WWII Soviet control. It's written as a series of short stories of 30 to 41 pages each and each one is a complete story in itself. All 6 stories put together tell a cohesive story of a man's life.

[Wayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

POST-READ:
Jaan Kross is Estonia's best known and most translated writer. To the majority of us that is Big News since we would be hard put to name ANY Estonian writer.Formerly a poet he came to novels and short stories much later in his writing career.
Short stories can be a totally different genre to a novel.
I think of Daphne du Maurier whose novels are realistic romances in that the lovers generally do NOT live happily ever after, but whose short stories are as far from romance as "Frankenstein " is from "Pride and Prejudice". And by the way ARE closer to "Frankenstein", being unsettling, surreal and unredeeming. Du Maurier obviously takes advantage of the short story to explore an entirely different set of subjects to her novels.

Kross' novels are historical from what I have read. His short stories reflect his own times and experiences and the genre is perfect for someone exploring a host of issues which may not hang together in a novel unless it is a very large novel. So these describe intense experiences...love, betrayal,escape, prison life, labour camp, the impact of chance encounters, help and jokes misfiring in disastrous ways. One character, Peeter Mirk, ties all the six stories together and one period, World War II and its aftermath. For Estonians this meant occupation by the Nazis and then the Russians.

I have no regrets about this purchase and the following acquaintance with an Estonian writer and his times.Some of his characters even migrate to Australia, and I can recall Baltic neighbours and railway workers who caught the same trains when I travelled to school. Now I KNOW what tragedies they were coming from.
I'm curious about his novels now.



PRE-READ:
Just another hidden, semi-forgotten purchase languishing on my bookshelves
awaiting recognition, resurrection
...or was it exhausted screaming!!??
that made me take it up a few days ago?!

What had led to its being here???
I recall the cover and my love of short stories here,
and a brand new author(for me!!),Jaan Kross.
Another inticement to adventure.
...but the Estonian???
I don't know why THAT should have thrown me.
It did because that novelty alone should have had it read years ago.
And the fact of having TWO Estonian friends
whom I was able to introduce to each other.
Meeting Juta in our staff room at the beginning of a new term and a new year
who was to be my fellow-ESL colleague,(ESL= English as a Second Language),
There were echoes about her that I couldn't pinpoint
UNTIL
she said she was Estonian;
and immediately I knew that she resembled Merle:
a striking likeness in the beautifully chiselled features,
the bone structure of the chin and jawline,
a certain aloofness of the head belied by the twinkle in the eye
which had set me at ease from the first.

No wonder I had bought this book!!!
No wonder I phoned Juta about it this morning.
And planned to phone Merle this evening.
Refugees,migrants,post World War Two traumas,
parents who had seen it all.
I am wondering how to find them copies of this piece of their heritage.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jaan Kross came from Estonia, one of the Baltic states perpetually suspended between Germany and Russia, and since he came of age in the forties, he witnessed the vicious madness of both. The Soviets invaded in 1940, the Nazis ousted them in 1941, only to cede the country back to the Red Army in 1944. The life of Peeter Mirk the law student, as narrated in the first four of these stories, demonstrates the impossibility of navigating between these opposing and lethal forces. The first three speak of fatal attempts by Estonians to flee, mostly by sea. Attention then shifts to the prisons. The tone is not entirely dire; Kross has a mordant sense of humor. As he notes, under the German occupation, the "criteria of the teaching staff had shifted ground", the Anglophiles grown more liberal, the Germanophiles more careworn, but the students did not know how the Red professors would have graded, since they were either in camps or underground. The banks are closed except for the students who occupy the offices to take advantage of their libraries. An actress sends a message to a prisoner by bathing on a contaminated beach where no one swims, wafting a towel over her head so that he can see the message, which is the color white. The Estonians of Jaan Kross in this book are a people working to regain their freedom without losing their sanity, with often fatal results.

[Tom Leland · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nominated a number of times for the Nobel Prize, obviously my two star rating says nothing about the writer -- just my own ability to enjoy it and what I think will be true for most American readers -- that these stories' ideal readers would be Estonians who lived through WWII and its aftermath in the Baltic states. I probably shouldn't have started with his short stories -- have a feeling I'd enjoy his novels.

[Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book several years ago and some of the images have haunted me ever since. A varied collection of moods and characters, but mostly set in Estonia in WWII. Kross was a magnificent writer.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am absolutely overwhelmed with joy that I found this author...it was the perfect accompaniment for my trip to Estonia.

[Beka Sukhitashvili · Rating 1 out of 5]

მხოლოდ "ოთხი მონოლოგი წმინდა გიორგის გამო".

[Kenneth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/13907798