Letters from Buenos Aires
Review of the Kirjastus Postimees paperback (Coptic bound) edition (September 2021)

"Letters from Buenos Aires" is not just a travelogue, but a collage of moments where getting to know a mysterious and poetic city, its culture and history goes hand in hand with seeing yourself and falling back into love with life.

Writer Eia Uus fled to Argentina at a time when life seemed difficult, hopeless and painful. Although she had no idea why Buenos Aires was there, it was as if the city was waiting for her. As if she had returned home, to the good air.

These intimate letters to a friend tell about everything small and big that makes up life - love, death, coffee, friendship, longing, storms, strangers, loneliness, art, light, darkness, chance, wine, literature, the Argentina i.e. The Silver River. - translation of the Estonian language synopsis.

This is an especially beautiful book not only for its memoir and generous photograph contents about exploring the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, but also for its actual bookbinding design and layout by Angelika Schneider which allows its contents to "breathe", in the author's words.

Eia Uus is both a fiction and travel writer. I read her recent novel Tüdrukene (Girlie) (2019) earlier this year and enjoyed it quite a bit. I learned about her book Kirjad Buenos Airesest (Letters from Buenos Aires) after its crowdfunder was already closed and I sourced it from an Estonian book store website. Reading that its design was by Angelika Schneider was an especial draw as I was familiar with the beauty of her open spine Coptic bindings from previous books issued by the Arvo Pärt Centre (e.g. Arvo Pärdi tintinnabuli-stiil: arhetüübid ja geomeetria, In Principio: The Word in Arvo Pärt's Music, Arvo Pärt: Vaikusest sündinud, etc.)

Uus lives for several weeks in Buenos Aires, at various apartments, visiting bookstores and a literary festival, meeting fellow writers, perpetually searches for coffee in a city where everyone drinks mate, observes tango dancers and even attends a dancing class, chats with strangers in restaurants, reads local writers and does her own writing in letters and notebooks. She assembled these into a book during the first year of the pandemic when she could no longer travel. The result is a wonderfully evocative picture of a city and its people.


One of the montage sets of photographs used in the book's crowdfunding campaign. Image sourced from Hooandja

Trivia and Links
The publication of Kirjad Buenos Airesest was supported through a campaign at the Estonian crowdfunder Hooandja. The campaign page with a video (Estonian language) and showing a selection of photographs from the book can be seen here.

Various bookstores are visited and pictured including:
El Ateneo Grand Splendid.
Eterna Cadencia. ( )