Märten Kross
Märten Kross (born 21 June 1970) is a musician, photographer, film producer and writer.
Kross was born and attended school in Tallinn. In the 1980s and 1990s he played the guitar in well-known Estonian punk and rock bands Kulo, Just Knud Qvigstad and Mr. Lawrence. He has studied at the New York Institute of Photography, the Estonian Academy of Arts and the University for the Creative Arts in the UK where he obtained a master’s degree in 2008. He has worked in the areas of real estate, music and photography and been a producer of several films, for example, a documentary about his father Jaan Kross (1920–2007) – Söerikastaja (‘The Coal Enricher’, 2004, director Peeter Simm). His mother was the writer Ellen Niit (1928-2016), sister is the artist and writer Maarja Undusk (b. 1959).
The action of his debut novel Hullumäng (‘Madness Game’, 2014) takes place in the second half of the 1980s. The protagonist, young musician Hendrik Haas, attempts to escape obligatory military service in the Soviet army by pretending to be a madman. This becomes a cat and mouse game. The novel reflects the atmosphere of the final years of the Soviet time with its fears and absurdity. Kross’s second, also autobiographical novel, Kokkuleppelised imed (‘Tentative Miracles’, 2025), tells the story of the main character Rasmus Laas’s life over 35 years. The main themes of the novel are love and relationships. Kokkuleppelised imed is based on the short story of the same name by Jaan Kross (published in the journal Looming in 2004), which caharacter’s prototype is Märten Kross.
A. K. (Translated by I. A.)
Books in Estonian
Novels
Hullumäng. Tallinn: Tammerraamat, 2014, 207 lk. [2. väljaanne: ‘Hullumäng. Iseenda teha kõik ja mitte miski’, Kõpu: JES Kirjastus, 2023, 230 lk.]
Kokkuleppelised imed. Tallinn: Kross Kirjastus, 2025, 282 lk.
