Witchcraft is Not For Sale and Other Stories
Review of the expanded Estonian paperback edition (2020) of the 1957 Estonian original translation of selected stories from "This Was the Old Chief's Country" (1951)

The African stories of the beloved English writer and Nobel laureate Doris Lessing (1919–2013) first appeared in 1951 in the collection “This was the Old Chief’s Country”, and three of these stories reached Estonian readers in the first year of the Loomingu Raamatukogu under the title “Imerohi ei ole müüdav” (Witchcraft is Not for Sale) (1957). The subjects of the stories come mainly from Lessing's childhood, most of which she spent on her parents' farm in Rhodesia, as well as from her youth. Doris Lessing was 30 when she moved to London, but Africa has always been very important in her heart and work. In the stories in the collection, Lessing masterfully sketches pictures of African nature, but even closer to her are the relationships between black natives and white colonizers, and the worldview questions that open up to the reader through the author's sensitive and sharp eyes. In addition to the three stories translated by Valda Raud in 1957, "The Old Chief Mshlanga", "No Witchcraft For Sale" and " ‘Leopard’ George", this new 2020 edition also includes the stories "Sunrise on the Veld", "Little Tembi" and "Winter in July", which have not previously been published in Estonian. Also at the end of the book is translator Krista Kaer's Afterword "Doris Lessing and Africa". - translation of the Estonian language synopsis.

This collection is only a brief look at one aspect of Doris Lessing's work. The short stories here give an idea of what life was like and what the attitudes were in the farming communities of Southern Rhodesia in the first half of the 20th century. These stories are about both whites and blacks and their interactions, where there is more misunderstanding than understanding. They speak very honestly, without romance and sentimentality. Lessing considered Southern Rhodesia to be her home, extending to the hills surrounding her home, as if she had never left it. She saw the change of this society, the tragic decline due to Mugabe's reign, and helped as she could. She helped with books, because there she saw a hunger for books, a hunger for knowledge that was already disappearing in a more cynical Europe. When she died in 2013, she bequeathed her entire library to Harare Central Library so that it could be sent to travel the land and be accessible to all. - translated from the Estonian language Afterword by Krista Kaer.

This expanded Imerohi ei ole müüdav ja teisi jutte 2020 edition contains 6 Estonian language translations of the 10 English language original short stories of This Was the Old Chief's Country (1951) which was Doris Lessing's 2nd published book after her debut of The Grass is Singing (1950). This is part of the Loomingu Raamatukogu's "Kuld sari" (Gold Series) which is making earlier, now out of print Estonian translations newly available. The new editions are also expanding on the earlier content in most cases.

Lessing's early stories are beautifully evocative and descriptive of the life in Southern Rhodesia where she grew up. Both the 1957 and 2020 translations here are wonderfully done and are able to transmit Lessing's language with simplicity and pure sensation. I was also checking the translation against the original English in the expanded "This Was the Old Chief's Country" (2003) which I think is now the only easily available English language volume. That only reaffirmed the beauty of Lessing's writing.

Trivia and Link
As I am an ASMR experiencer myself, I was quite thrilled to read the following line in the story "The Old Chief Mshlanga":

I was listening to the quick regular tapping of a woodpecker when slowly a chill feeling seemed to grow up from the small of my back to my shoulders, in a constricting spasm like a shudder, and at the roots of my hair a tingling sensation began and ran down over the surface of my flesh, leaving me goose-fleshed and cold, though I was damp with sweat.*

While there are elements here that might be indicative of momentary "chill" or "frisson," there are also elements that are associated with the longer lasting ASMR sensation esp. a triggering by tapping sounds, the direction of the tingling sensation from the head down to the surface of the flesh, etc.
In any case, my discoveries of ASMR in Fiction are still so few, that I just had to add Doris Lessing to the list.

*Quoting the original English above, the Estonian translation reads as

Kuulatasin rähni kiiret korrapärast toksimist, kui mulle tundus, et mu ristluudest tõuseb aeglaselt õlgade poole külm judin, pannes mind nagu külmavärinates vappuma, mu juuksejuurtest aga algas kihelus, mis sealt üle kogu keha levis, kattes selle kananahaga, kuigi olin kuum ja higine.