The Man Who Spoke Snakish by Andrus Kivirähk and Christopher Moseley (2015)

I was interested in this as it was written by a fellow Balt - an Estonian and the book was recommended by a friend. I really liked the premise - set in the 12th century, when German crusaders came into northern Europe and brought Christianity and "progress" to the local tribes. (He has them call themselves Estonians, though they did not use that terms and probably felt more of a belonging to a smaller group or tribe.) What a fascinating theme to explore - how the locals felt about it, how they were drawn into the German culture, and in this case, how they went from living in the woods and eating by hunting, to an agricultural way of life, where the main staple food is bread.

But somehow I have imagined it differently, and my understanding of our Baltic ancestors is that they had a deep spiritual connection to all of nature, had names for various natural phenomenon, and held certain places - large trees, rocks, springs as sacred. In this story, our hero can speak Snakish, which allows him to speak to snakes and most other creatures and some of them can speak back to him, especially snakes. But he disavows any sprites or sacred places and cuts down a sacred grove of trees and goes on a huge killing spree.