Piret Jaaks draws on Vormsi’s closed world for new novel

Writer Piret Jaaks says Vormsi island’s isolated character and unique social rules provided fertile ground for her novel The Sun Believers, ERR reported. Jaaks was named Estonia’s writer of the year at the Juhan Liiv Museum in early August.

Jaaks described the award as an extraordinary event. “It was a great surprise even to me. They do not warn you at the Liiv Museum about what awaits you. They simply invite you to perform and talk about your book,” she said, laughing as she recalled that a dog that had nearly fallen asleep in her lap dropped to the floor when the announcement was made.

The novel is set on Vormsi at the beginning of the 19th century. Its title has several meanings, Jaaks said. The first refers to an ancient belief in the sun, while another suggests faith in something good, including light, transparency and positive thinking.

In the novel, however, the meaning of this faith changes repeatedly. By the end, it has acquired a negative sense, becoming a belief that predicts danger. Jaaks said the concept is also linked to the ideas of the Enlightenment.

“At one point, the wave of the Enlightenment reaches our shores. The book includes a manor family that begins to have doubts,” she said. The coastal Swedes living on Vormsi are effectively serfs, although officially they should not be. They possess a document proving that they are free people.

The manor family begins to wonder whether Enlightenment ideas have already spread from the mainland and whether the island’s residents should become more tolerant towards the serfs.

The novel focuses on women who are buffeted by the forces of history. Jaaks, who has previously drawn inspiration from historical events, said her interest in Vormsi was closely connected to the coastal Swedes.

“The island of Vormsi has been on my mind for quite some time, together with the coastal Swedes,” she said. She initially considered writing about coastal Swedes more broadly, as they lived in several places, including near Tallinn and on Ruhnu.

She eventually decided to focus on Vormsi as a small oasis and a closed system that could also be seen as a kind of paradise.

“Places that are closed, where their own laws develop, are very sweet places for a writer,” Jaaks said. Such settings allow events to unfold in an isolated world that is nevertheless subject to larger forces, she added.

Jaaks said the period and setting also reflect moods present in society today. People may feel as if they are living in their own oasis while constantly sensing the forces around them, including war, changing beliefs and questions about artificial intelligence, she said.

“What do we believe in and where do we draw hope from?” Jaaks asked, adding that these connections appear in the novel as underlying currents rather than direct references.