A. H. Tammsaare is a central figure in the Estonian literary canon. His novels have become a part of the Estonian identity, and their characters have achieved the status of nearly mythical types; with his novels, Estonian prose literature achieved unprecedented maturity. Though known primarily as a novelist, Tammsaare is also the author of two plays and many essays. His works are characterized by a persistent inquiry into the meaning of life and by an attempt to elucidate the nature of human beings in all their complexity. Philosophical illumination arising from the subtle depiction of everyday life is the hallmark of his novels. Such mundane phenomena as the sound of rural church bells, the tending of pigs, the breaking up of boulders, or birds fighting assume broader connotations in Tammsaare's novels. His writing is enriched by stylistic nuances; his characters embody an abundance of psychological contradictions; his narrators...