Our method

Did you notice how much of the Estonian under each line started to make sense? Reading the original and the italic lines below it, you just saw for yourself how our books work. That is the method. Everything below is detail.

How it works

Every line of the original text is printed in regular type. The translation sits in italics right below it. You read both at once, line by line, without reaching for a dictionary or flipping to a separate translation page.

We translate phrase by phrase, not sentence by sentence. Each phrase matches the translation directly below it, in the same order. Most translations rewrite the meaning of the original in the target language. We keep the structure as close to the original as possible without losing the sense.

This directness has one concrete result: you see how the language is built. Not just what the sentences mean, but how they are put together.

Who it's for

Anyone who has wanted to read a book in a foreign language but isn't quite there yet. Maybe you're picking up Estonian and want something real to read. Maybe you learned a language at school and want to bring it back. Maybe you simply love literature and want to read it the way it was written.

You don't need any prior level. If you can recognize a few words or roughly map out a sentence, the book does the rest.

How it started

We're a small group and we travel a lot. Every time we landed somewhere new, we wanted to get to know the local language. Not tourist phrases, something real. We tried apps, courses, podcasts. Nothing stuck.

We kept coming back to reading. But reading in a foreign language without support is miserable, and carrying a dictionary around is no joy either. We wanted something that puts the original and the translation on the same page in a way that actually helps.

We couldn't find it, so we made it ourselves.

Our first book is Mikhail Bulgakov's Koera süda / Собачье сердце. See the book →