“Wind Chimes”

Herta Laipaik, a doctor, who became a writer, started writing in 1940, publishing her first novel in the newspaper “Eesti Sõna”. She has written documentary novels, memoirs, historical novels but also books based on Estonian mythology. The number of her novels is 21 and she has been called the Estonian Agatha Christie. She has described her own life in the novels “Fear” and “Angara. Anno 1950”.
In all her books Herta Laipaik has expressed her belief in the inner freedom and the goodness of people and the possibilities of mutual understanding.

“Wind Chimes” is a memoir describing the life in Tallinn before World War II and before the mass deportations following the occupation of Estonia by the Soviet Union.
The roar of Russian aeroplanes above, exploding bombs all around, the fiery glow of burning Tallinn behind us – this is how a Nõmme train travels away from the capital city in the memory of Herta Laipaik on the night of March 9, 1944. Among the people crouching on the floor of the half-smashed rail carriage is the author of “Wind Chimes”, a young medicine student at the time. A soldier is playing on his mouth organ the captivating tune of “Es geht alles vorüber”. Everything would be overcome, forgotten at some point. People in the train had to believe that.