Soviet Milk
About the book
The lives of a doctor and her daughter show Soviet power entering work, motherhood and inner life.
Original title: Mātes piens
Europe · A READING GUIDE
Latvia
Ikstena approaches Latvian history through a mother-daughter relationship. Begin here for family memory and the consequences of life under Soviet rule. Joņevs’s Doom 94 offers a different perspective: coming of age amid 1990s metal music. Zālīte follows a child’s return from deportation, while Ābele traces the long consequences of private choices. Choose Flesh-Coloured Dominoes for formal experimentation, or The Cage for a claustrophobic mystery.
Books to begin with
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Doom 94
About the book
A teenager discovers metal music and his own identity in a Latvian town during the 1990s.
Original title: Jelgava ’94
High Tide
About the book
Ieva’s story, told largely in reverse chronology, reveals the long consequences of youthful decisions.
Original title: Paisums
Five Fingers
About the book
A girl returning from deportation discovers Latvia through family silences and her childhood imagination.
Original title: Pieci pirksti
The Cage
About the book
An architect’s disappearance leads to a literal and metaphorical cage of life in Soviet Latvia.
Original title: Būris
Flesh-Coloured Dominoes
About the book
Family history and eighteenth-century fantasy intertwine body, memory and dilemmas of Latvian identity.
Original title: Miesas krāsas domino
The Year the River Froze Twice
About the book
Human and equine lives intertwine in postwar Latvia in 1949, moving between Riga, Selonia and Latgale.
Original title: Duna
Life Stories
About the book
A collection of short stories by the Latvian author, available in Margita Gailītis’s English translation.
Original title: Dzīves stāsti
Context and sources
Sources on authors and their connections to this country. Specific edition details appear beside each book. Polish and English originals are not labelled as translations.
- Źródło: autor i tradycja literacka ↗
- Jānis Joņevs — wydanie i informacje o autorze ↗
- Inga Ābele — wydanie i informacje o autorze ↗
- Māra Zālīte — wydanie i informacje o autorze ↗
- Alberts Bels — wydanie i informacje o autorze ↗
- Zigmunds Skujiņš — wydanie i informacje o autorze ↗
- Inga Ābele — The Year the River Froze Twice ↗
- Nora Ikstena — Life Stories ↗
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