Toomas Nipernaadi is one of the more peculiar works in the Estonian
literary canon, and its eponymous male protagonist is without doubt one
of the most exciting characters in the language. First of all he seems
merely to be a man who travels from place to place charming people and
telling stories, only to forget it all in the blink of an eye. But
perhaps, more than anybody, it is precisely he who remembers. Perhaps
all the hearts he touches will remain dear to him. The idea of Toomas
Nipernaadi is said to have come to Gailit when he heard a man's echoing
footsteps in a Berlin theatre, and those who wish to will hear this
sound in the text of his novel. In many ways the protagonist can be seen
as the writer's alter ego. Those close to Gailit knew that beneath his
self-confidence and brio, a tender and melancholy soul was hiding, which
the reader will no doubt be able to recognise in Toomas Nipernaadi.
Since it was first published in 1928, the book has conquered one heart
after another, and it will charm many coming generations. Besides other
things, it captures the dream-like summer of Estonia: brief yet
eternally recurring.