Author: Inara Verzemnieks
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393245128
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Book Description
A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice A BookPage Best Book of the Year "This exquisitely written book shows how recovery can come generations later through rebuilding connections—to people, the natural world, the past." —Robin Shulman, Washington Post "It’s long been assumed of the region where my grandmother was born…that at some point each year the dead will come home," Inara Verzemnieks writes in this exquisite story of war, exile, and reconnection. Her grandmother’s stories recalled one true home: the family farm left behind in Latvia, where, during WWII, her grandmother Livija and her grandmother’s sister, Ausma, were separated. They would not see each other again for more than 50 years. Raised by her grandparents in Washington State, Inara grew up among expatriates, scattering smuggled Latvian sand over the coffins of the dead, singing folk songs about a land she had never visited. When Inara discovers the scarf Livija wore when she left home, in a box of her grandmother’s belongings, this tangible remnant of the past points the way back to the remote village where her family broke apart. There it is said the suspend their exile once a year for a pilgrimage through forests and fields to the homes they left behind. Coming to know Ausma and the trauma of her exile to Siberia under Stalin, Inara pieces together Livija’s survival through years as a refugee. Weaving these two parts of the family story together in spellbinding, lyrical prose, she gives us a profound and cathartic account of loss, survival, resilience, and love.
Among the Living and the Dead: A Tale of Exile and Homecoming
Author: Inara Verzemnieks
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393245128
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Book Description
A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice A BookPage Best Book of the Year "This exquisitely written book shows how recovery can come generations later through rebuilding connections—to people, the natural world, the past." —Robin Shulman, Washington Post "It’s long been assumed of the region where my grandmother was born…that at some point each year the dead will come home," Inara Verzemnieks writes in this exquisite story of war, exile, and reconnection. Her grandmother’s stories recalled one true home: the family farm left behind in Latvia, where, during WWII, her grandmother Livija and her grandmother’s sister, Ausma, were separated. They would not see each other again for more than 50 years. Raised by her grandparents in Washington State, Inara grew up among expatriates, scattering smuggled Latvian sand over the coffins of the dead, singing folk songs about a land she had never visited. When Inara discovers the scarf Livija wore when she left home, in a box of her grandmother’s belongings, this tangible remnant of the past points the way back to the remote village where her family broke apart. There it is said the suspend their exile once a year for a pilgrimage through forests and fields to the homes they left behind. Coming to know Ausma and the trauma of her exile to Siberia under Stalin, Inara pieces together Livija’s survival through years as a refugee. Weaving these two parts of the family story together in spellbinding, lyrical prose, she gives us a profound and cathartic account of loss, survival, resilience, and love.
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393245128
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Book Description
A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice A BookPage Best Book of the Year "This exquisitely written book shows how recovery can come generations later through rebuilding connections—to people, the natural world, the past." —Robin Shulman, Washington Post "It’s long been assumed of the region where my grandmother was born…that at some point each year the dead will come home," Inara Verzemnieks writes in this exquisite story of war, exile, and reconnection. Her grandmother’s stories recalled one true home: the family farm left behind in Latvia, where, during WWII, her grandmother Livija and her grandmother’s sister, Ausma, were separated. They would not see each other again for more than 50 years. Raised by her grandparents in Washington State, Inara grew up among expatriates, scattering smuggled Latvian sand over the coffins of the dead, singing folk songs about a land she had never visited. When Inara discovers the scarf Livija wore when she left home, in a box of her grandmother’s belongings, this tangible remnant of the past points the way back to the remote village where her family broke apart. There it is said the suspend their exile once a year for a pilgrimage through forests and fields to the homes they left behind. Coming to know Ausma and the trauma of her exile to Siberia under Stalin, Inara pieces together Livija’s survival through years as a refugee. Weaving these two parts of the family story together in spellbinding, lyrical prose, she gives us a profound and cathartic account of loss, survival, resilience, and love.
Among the Living and the Dead
Author: Inara Verzemnieks
Publisher: Pushkin Press
ISBN: 1782274308
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 263
Book Description
A powerfully told memoir of family, separation, and the things left unsaid, in the wake of the Second World War Raised by her grandparents in the USA, Inara Verzemnieks grew up among expatriates, scattering smuggled Latvian sand over the coffins of the dead, singing folk songs about a land she had never visited. Her grandmother Livija's stories recalled the remote village in Latvia left behind, where she and her sister, Ausma, were separated during the Second World War. They would not see each other again for more than fifty years. Coming to know Ausma and the trauma of her exile to Siberia under Stalin, Inara pieces together her grandmother's survival through the years as a refugee, and her grandfather's own troubling history as a conscript in the Nazi forces. As she interweaves two parts of the family story in spellbinding, lyrical prose, she offers us a profound and cathartic account of loss and survival, resilience and love. Inara Verzemnieks teaches creative non-fiction at the University of Iowa. She has won a Pushcart Prize and a Rona Jaffe Writer's Award, and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in feature writing. She lives in Iowa City, Iowa.
Publisher: Pushkin Press
ISBN: 1782274308
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 263
Book Description
A powerfully told memoir of family, separation, and the things left unsaid, in the wake of the Second World War Raised by her grandparents in the USA, Inara Verzemnieks grew up among expatriates, scattering smuggled Latvian sand over the coffins of the dead, singing folk songs about a land she had never visited. Her grandmother Livija's stories recalled the remote village in Latvia left behind, where she and her sister, Ausma, were separated during the Second World War. They would not see each other again for more than fifty years. Coming to know Ausma and the trauma of her exile to Siberia under Stalin, Inara pieces together her grandmother's survival through the years as a refugee, and her grandfather's own troubling history as a conscript in the Nazi forces. As she interweaves two parts of the family story in spellbinding, lyrical prose, she offers us a profound and cathartic account of loss and survival, resilience and love. Inara Verzemnieks teaches creative non-fiction at the University of Iowa. She has won a Pushcart Prize and a Rona Jaffe Writer's Award, and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in feature writing. She lives in Iowa City, Iowa.
The Last Million
Author: David Nasaw
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0143110993
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 673
Book Description
From bestselling author David Nasaw, a sweeping new history of the one million refugees left behind in Germany after WWII In May 1945, after German forces surrendered to the Allied powers, millions of concentration camp survivors, POWs, slave laborers, political prisoners, and Nazi collaborators were left behind in Germany, a nation in ruins. British and American soldiers attempted to repatriate the refugees, but more than a million displaced persons remained in Germany: Jews, Poles, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, and other Eastern Europeans who refused to go home or had no homes to return to. Most would eventually be resettled in lands suffering from postwar labor shortages, but no nation, including the United States, was willing to accept more than a handful of the 200,000 to 250,000 Jewish men, women, and children who remained trapped in Germany. When in June, 1948, the United States Congress passed legislation permitting the immigration of displaced persons, visas were granted to sizable numbers of war criminals and Nazi collaborators, but denied to 90% of the Jewish displaced persons. A masterwork from acclaimed historian David Nasaw, The Last Million tells the gripping but until now hidden story of postwar displacement and statelessness and of the Last Million, as they crossed from a broken past into an unknowable future, carrying with them their wounds, their fears, their hope, and their secrets. Here for the first time, Nasaw illuminates their incredible history and shows us how it is our history as well.
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0143110993
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 673
Book Description
From bestselling author David Nasaw, a sweeping new history of the one million refugees left behind in Germany after WWII In May 1945, after German forces surrendered to the Allied powers, millions of concentration camp survivors, POWs, slave laborers, political prisoners, and Nazi collaborators were left behind in Germany, a nation in ruins. British and American soldiers attempted to repatriate the refugees, but more than a million displaced persons remained in Germany: Jews, Poles, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, and other Eastern Europeans who refused to go home or had no homes to return to. Most would eventually be resettled in lands suffering from postwar labor shortages, but no nation, including the United States, was willing to accept more than a handful of the 200,000 to 250,000 Jewish men, women, and children who remained trapped in Germany. When in June, 1948, the United States Congress passed legislation permitting the immigration of displaced persons, visas were granted to sizable numbers of war criminals and Nazi collaborators, but denied to 90% of the Jewish displaced persons. A masterwork from acclaimed historian David Nasaw, The Last Million tells the gripping but until now hidden story of postwar displacement and statelessness and of the Last Million, as they crossed from a broken past into an unknowable future, carrying with them their wounds, their fears, their hope, and their secrets. Here for the first time, Nasaw illuminates their incredible history and shows us how it is our history as well.
Latvia
Author: Kaitlyn Duling
Publisher: Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC
ISBN: 1502647370
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 146
Book Description
Our planet is large, vast, and filled with an amazing array of unique countries and cultures. With this book, students can explore one such place, the young nation of Latvia, which hugs the Baltic Sea. Vibrant photographs, detailed maps, and engaging text combine to give readers an inside look at this country, its history, its people, and all the opportunities that lie within it. Once a part of the USSR, Latvia has been through immense changes in recent years. Readers will be riveted by the exciting stories and images in this book.
Publisher: Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC
ISBN: 1502647370
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 146
Book Description
Our planet is large, vast, and filled with an amazing array of unique countries and cultures. With this book, students can explore one such place, the young nation of Latvia, which hugs the Baltic Sea. Vibrant photographs, detailed maps, and engaging text combine to give readers an inside look at this country, its history, its people, and all the opportunities that lie within it. Once a part of the USSR, Latvia has been through immense changes in recent years. Readers will be riveted by the exciting stories and images in this book.
July Buzz Books Monthly
Author:
Publisher: Publishers Lunch
ISBN: 0998664251
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 178
Book Description
You'll find exclusive excerpts of seven beach-worthy titles due for publication during the month of July in this sampler—after our extensive preview of well over 100 new books of interest coming to market in the month ahead. Then turn to new fiction from bestselling authors. Thrillers dominate our excerpts this month, with The Last Hack, the new Jack Parlabane thriller from one of the smartest minds in crime fiction, Christopher Brookmyre as well as literary thriller Fierce Kingdom by Barnes & Noble Discover Award-winner Gin Phillips. Riley Sager’s debut, Final Girls, is a gripping psychological thriller. The Life She Was Given by Ellen Wiseman, while not a thriller, is an intense novel about the devastating power of family secrets—beginning in the poignant, lurid world of a Depression-era traveling circus and coming full circle in the transformative 1950s. On the lighter side is Rachel Khong’s funny, touching debut Goodbye, Vitamin. Our nonfiction excerpt is In Vino Duplicitas: The Rise and Fall of a Wine Forger Extraordinaire Journalist Peter Hellman details the notorious, legendary Rudy Kurniawan, a 20-something Indonesian immigrant who burst onto the rarified scene of ultrafine wines in 2002 and then crashed and burned. Rounding out the sampler is a young adult sci-fi/fantasy, Dream Me by Kathyrn Berla. Buzz Books Monthlies are your first and best place to turn for a real insider's taste of what to read next, and what the book world will be talking about next month. We hope you enjoy the monthly Buzz Books—and keep an eye out for August Buzz Books available in early July. Passionate readers have relied on our twice-a-year Buzz Books to sample and discover new books from big authors and breakout talents through exclusive and substantial pre-publication excerpts. You can read more than 50 excerpts from the hottest books appearing this fall and winter right now. Also, watch for our second annual Buzz Books Romance, devoted to this popular genre (available July 12).
Publisher: Publishers Lunch
ISBN: 0998664251
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 178
Book Description
You'll find exclusive excerpts of seven beach-worthy titles due for publication during the month of July in this sampler—after our extensive preview of well over 100 new books of interest coming to market in the month ahead. Then turn to new fiction from bestselling authors. Thrillers dominate our excerpts this month, with The Last Hack, the new Jack Parlabane thriller from one of the smartest minds in crime fiction, Christopher Brookmyre as well as literary thriller Fierce Kingdom by Barnes & Noble Discover Award-winner Gin Phillips. Riley Sager’s debut, Final Girls, is a gripping psychological thriller. The Life She Was Given by Ellen Wiseman, while not a thriller, is an intense novel about the devastating power of family secrets—beginning in the poignant, lurid world of a Depression-era traveling circus and coming full circle in the transformative 1950s. On the lighter side is Rachel Khong’s funny, touching debut Goodbye, Vitamin. Our nonfiction excerpt is In Vino Duplicitas: The Rise and Fall of a Wine Forger Extraordinaire Journalist Peter Hellman details the notorious, legendary Rudy Kurniawan, a 20-something Indonesian immigrant who burst onto the rarified scene of ultrafine wines in 2002 and then crashed and burned. Rounding out the sampler is a young adult sci-fi/fantasy, Dream Me by Kathyrn Berla. Buzz Books Monthlies are your first and best place to turn for a real insider's taste of what to read next, and what the book world will be talking about next month. We hope you enjoy the monthly Buzz Books—and keep an eye out for August Buzz Books available in early July. Passionate readers have relied on our twice-a-year Buzz Books to sample and discover new books from big authors and breakout talents through exclusive and substantial pre-publication excerpts. You can read more than 50 excerpts from the hottest books appearing this fall and winter right now. Also, watch for our second annual Buzz Books Romance, devoted to this popular genre (available July 12).
Wife | Daughter | Self
Author: Beth Kephart
Publisher: Forest Avenue Press
ISBN: 1942436459
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 196
Book Description
Wife | Daughter | Self investigates identity and the writing life through the perspective of one of the nation’s top memoir teachers and critics. How are we shaped by the people we love? Who are we when we think no one else is watching? How do we trust the choices we make? The answers shift as the years go by. The stories remake themselves as we remember. Curiously, inventively, Beth Kephart reflects on the iterative, composite self in her new memoir—traveling to lakes and rivers, New Mexico and Mexico, the icy waters of Alaska and a hot-air balloon launch in search of understanding. She is accompanied, often, by her Salvadoran-artist husband. She spends time, a lot of time, with her widowed father. As she looks at them she ponders herself and comes to terms with the person she is still becoming. At once sweeping and intimate, Wife | Daughter | Self is a memoir built of interlocking essays by an acclaimed author, teacher, and critic.
Publisher: Forest Avenue Press
ISBN: 1942436459
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 196
Book Description
Wife | Daughter | Self investigates identity and the writing life through the perspective of one of the nation’s top memoir teachers and critics. How are we shaped by the people we love? Who are we when we think no one else is watching? How do we trust the choices we make? The answers shift as the years go by. The stories remake themselves as we remember. Curiously, inventively, Beth Kephart reflects on the iterative, composite self in her new memoir—traveling to lakes and rivers, New Mexico and Mexico, the icy waters of Alaska and a hot-air balloon launch in search of understanding. She is accompanied, often, by her Salvadoran-artist husband. She spends time, a lot of time, with her widowed father. As she looks at them she ponders herself and comes to terms with the person she is still becoming. At once sweeping and intimate, Wife | Daughter | Self is a memoir built of interlocking essays by an acclaimed author, teacher, and critic.
Among the Living and the Dead
Author: Inara Verzemnieks
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781782274315
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781782274315
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Book Description
Escape from Latvia
Author: Ingrid McGowan
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781546513452
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 166
Book Description
This is the story of Erika and Nikolajs Garais, young Latvians who escape their native Latvia to flee Soviet invaders. Follow their struggles through first person diary entries spanning two years from the night they board a Belgian cargo ship on September 7, 1944. Read about their families and backgrounds, then continue after the journal with poignant description of the relationships within the small family as it travels through Germany, England and, finally, Canada. Learn about Erika and Nikolajs' lives beyond the war and how the experiences captured in the diary impacted the entire family. This is a revealing and honest tribute to two survivors of DP camps in World War II Germany.
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781546513452
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 166
Book Description
This is the story of Erika and Nikolajs Garais, young Latvians who escape their native Latvia to flee Soviet invaders. Follow their struggles through first person diary entries spanning two years from the night they board a Belgian cargo ship on September 7, 1944. Read about their families and backgrounds, then continue after the journal with poignant description of the relationships within the small family as it travels through Germany, England and, finally, Canada. Learn about Erika and Nikolajs' lives beyond the war and how the experiences captured in the diary impacted the entire family. This is a revealing and honest tribute to two survivors of DP camps in World War II Germany.
Fables and Futures
Author: George Estreich
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262351803
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 239
Book Description
How new biomedical technologies—from prenatal testing to gene-editing techniques—require us to imagine who counts as human and what it means to belong. From next-generation prenatal tests, to virtual children, to the genome-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9, new biotechnologies grant us unprecedented power to predict and shape future people. That power implies a question about belonging: which people, which variations, will we welcome? How will we square new biotech advances with the real but fragile gains for people with disabilities—especially when their voices are all but absent from the conversation? This book explores that conversation, the troubled territory where biotechnology and disability meet. In it, George Estreich—an award-winning poet and memoirist, and the father of a young woman with Down syndrome—delves into popular representations of cutting-edge biotech: websites advertising next-generation prenatal tests, feature articles on “three-parent IVF,” a scientist's memoir of constructing a semisynthetic cell, and more. As Estreich shows, each new application of biotechnology is accompanied by a persuasive story, one that minimizes downsides and promises enormous benefits. In this story, people with disabilities are both invisible and essential: a key promise of new technologies is that disability will be repaired or prevented. In chapters that blend personal narrative and scholarship, Estreich restores disability to our narratives of technology. He also considers broader themes: the place of people with disabilities in a world built for the able; the echoes of eugenic history in the genomic present; and the equation of intellect and human value. Examining the stories we tell ourselves, the fables already creating our futures, Estreich argues that, given biotech that can select and shape who we are, we need to imagine, as broadly as possible, what it means to belong.
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262351803
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 239
Book Description
How new biomedical technologies—from prenatal testing to gene-editing techniques—require us to imagine who counts as human and what it means to belong. From next-generation prenatal tests, to virtual children, to the genome-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9, new biotechnologies grant us unprecedented power to predict and shape future people. That power implies a question about belonging: which people, which variations, will we welcome? How will we square new biotech advances with the real but fragile gains for people with disabilities—especially when their voices are all but absent from the conversation? This book explores that conversation, the troubled territory where biotechnology and disability meet. In it, George Estreich—an award-winning poet and memoirist, and the father of a young woman with Down syndrome—delves into popular representations of cutting-edge biotech: websites advertising next-generation prenatal tests, feature articles on “three-parent IVF,” a scientist's memoir of constructing a semisynthetic cell, and more. As Estreich shows, each new application of biotechnology is accompanied by a persuasive story, one that minimizes downsides and promises enormous benefits. In this story, people with disabilities are both invisible and essential: a key promise of new technologies is that disability will be repaired or prevented. In chapters that blend personal narrative and scholarship, Estreich restores disability to our narratives of technology. He also considers broader themes: the place of people with disabilities in a world built for the able; the echoes of eugenic history in the genomic present; and the equation of intellect and human value. Examining the stories we tell ourselves, the fables already creating our futures, Estreich argues that, given biotech that can select and shape who we are, we need to imagine, as broadly as possible, what it means to belong.
A Memoir of Home, War and Finding Refuge
Author: Lilita Hardes
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780578738253
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
A Latvian war refugee's memoir of flight and displacement during WWII. The comforts and security of Biruta, a nine-year-old twin, are ripped away her in 1939 Riga, Latvia. She lives an idyllic life with her sister and two physician parents in Latvia when WWII breaks out. One of three independent Baltic states, Latvia attempts to remain neutral during the war. Yet, the country is situated between two ruthless rivals: Stalin's Communist Soviet Union and Hitler's Nazi Germany. As the Soviet army occupies Latvia, the family flees to Germany during the last year of the war. In the Displaced Persons (DP) camps of Germany, Biruta comes of age, falls in love, and ultimately finds somewhere to call home.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780578738253
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
A Latvian war refugee's memoir of flight and displacement during WWII. The comforts and security of Biruta, a nine-year-old twin, are ripped away her in 1939 Riga, Latvia. She lives an idyllic life with her sister and two physician parents in Latvia when WWII breaks out. One of three independent Baltic states, Latvia attempts to remain neutral during the war. Yet, the country is situated between two ruthless rivals: Stalin's Communist Soviet Union and Hitler's Nazi Germany. As the Soviet army occupies Latvia, the family flees to Germany during the last year of the war. In the Displaced Persons (DP) camps of Germany, Biruta comes of age, falls in love, and ultimately finds somewhere to call home.