The year was 2003, the country Estonia. Great changes were blowing across this small land perched in the fringes of the north - a vote to join a union of European nations, a blizzard of Western consumerism, a feverish demand for real estate. Bankrolled by Scandinavian moneymen, it promised to draw a sheet over the corpse of the socialist economy and make everything shiny and new. While Estonia pondered its fate as a new member of the glittering West, I wrestled with my own fate as a husband and father to be, at the age of 23. I had been drawn to northern Europe by its gem-like allure but now...

This collection of entertaining columns captures Estonian life as experienced through the eyes of a foreigner. Inside you will find tales of mobile phones and wood-heated furnaces, jerks and drunks, Estonian blood and foreign men, homemade pickles and nuclear winters, blood sausages and jellied meats, celebrities and unzipped pants, Soviet nostalgia and Fish Fridays, prostitutes and porn addicts, pregnancy and dementia, moving and renovation, dress codes and tribes, secrets and saunas, drug wars and flying couches, Facebook and voyeurism. Not to mention other important characters, including...