The Indrawn Heart

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Is Estonia home to the most introspective nation in Europe? The stereotypes of Estonians might suggest so, depicting a reticent and uneffusive people for whom, according to their own proverb, speaking is silver, silence is golden. Early one summer, Max Boyle departs his native West Yorkshire to travel the country, of which little beyond the capital, Tallinn, and a Eurovision song contest win in 2001 is known in Britain. He takes with him a copy of You Are So Little, Little (Sa Oled Väikene, Väike), a poem by tragic nineteenth-century writer Juhan Liiv which speaks of Estonia and its indrawn heart.In an adventure which supplements a backpacking journey with an offbeat behavioural and literary enquiry, he explores his ancestral home, inviting Estonians to comment on Liiv's verse and their own view of themselves.