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"A haunting, luminous reckoning with exile and loss. Raised by her Latvian grandparents in Washington State, Inara Verzemnieks grew up among expatriates, scattering smuggled Latvian sand over the coffins of the dead, singing folk songs with other children about a land none of them had visited. Her grandmother's stories re-created in vivid, nostalgic detail the family farm she'd left behind in a borderland violently contested during the Second World War. In the fighting, her grandmother Livija and her grandmother's sister, Ausma, were separated and would not see each other again for more than fifty years. Journeying back to the remote village where her family broke apart, Inara comes to know Ausma and the trauma of her exile to Siberia under Stalin, while reconstructing Livija's survival through her years as a refugee. In bringing together these two sides of the family story, Inara honors both sisters in a deeply cathartic and moving account of loss, survival, resilience, and love."--Provided by publisher.… (more)
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Inara, the author, was raised by her Latvian grandparents who were settled in the US as refugees from WWII. Throughout her childhood she is kept up with Latvian ways in part by the existence of a strong community in the place her grandparents were settled, but mostly because her carers have a deep sense of place and an intense love of and mourning for their place birth. The sense of loss that her displaced grandmother has is palpable, and Inara traces her and her families histories throughout the course of this book.
The story unfolds beautifully, and it retains its beauty and poetry throughout. Although it contains elements of both, this is not a book of war facts, nor a personal legacy book. What it is, is something altogether unique and could be read for the beautiful use of language alone. In addition, it parallels (to a certain degree) my own family history and so adds to what I know about some of the experiences my relatives faced. Anyone interested in WWII or refugees or history could read this book, it certainly gave me a renewed sense of empathy for those displaced by war.