Diary of a Blood Donor (Eastern European Literature)

In 1990, the same year as Things in the Night, Unt published a second novel, Diary of a Blood Donor, which displays the usual Untian mixture of fact and fiction, and takes one of the most sacred names in Estonian literature in vain. Lydia Koidula (1843-1886) is widely regarded as the first Estonian woman poet of significance, and also as the first poet to express an Estonian longing for independence. Here, Unt rather blasphemously weaves this national icon and her Latvian doctor husband into a postmodern tale of vampires and a mysterious trip to Leningrad.