Radio
by Tõnu Õnnepalu
Translated by Adam Cullen
Dalkey Archive Press
600 pages, $17.95.
ESTONIA IS NOT a country that leaps immediately to mind in discussions of today’s literary lights, but—based on the evidence of Radio, at least—that situation may be in need of change. The novel’s author is Tõnu Õnnepalu, who is well known in Estonia and whose previous novel, Border States (written under the pseudonym Emil Tode), won the Baltic Assembly Prize for Literature. Radio was originally published in 2002 and is being reissued by the Dalkey Archive Press, which deserves a special shout-out for bringing forth a large number of similarly overlooked works over the years.
Dale Boyer is a writer living and working in Chicago.