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Among the Living and the Dead : A Tale of Exile and Homecoming on the War Roads of Europe by Inara Verzemnieks (2018, Trade Paperback)
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About this product
Product Identifiers
PublisherNorton & Company, Incorporated, w. w.
ISBN-100393356191
ISBN-139780393356199
eBay Product ID (ePID)242713329
Product Key Features
Book TitleAmong the Living and the Dead : a Tale of Exile and Homecoming on the War Roads of Europe
Number of Pages290 Pages
LanguageEnglish
TopicCultural Heritage, Military / World War II, Sociology / General, Personal Memoirs, Sociology / Rural
Publication Year2018
GenreSocial Science, Biography & Autobiography, History
AuthorInara Verzemnieks
FormatTrade Paperback
Dimensions
Item Height0.8 in
Item Weight12.8 Oz
Item Length8.3 in
Item Width5.6 in
Additional Product Features
Intended AudienceTrade
ReviewsThoughtful and eloquent. . . . Verzemnieks is solid on her history. Even more, she offers a model for how to navigate it. When she reaches the limit of what she can know, she doesn't confuse it with the limit of what can be known., [Verzemnieks] is a gracious writer, inviting the readers on her journey into the past...Armed with her wealth of knowledge in Latvian history and myths, and her masterful and lush observations, Verzemnieks remains an able guide, earning our undivided attention and admiration., The astute reportorial sensitivity of a master Eastern European historian like Timothy Snyder, as filtered through the lyric sensibility of a García Márquez, and suffused with the aching nostalgia of a latter-day Proust., The astute reportorial sensitivity of a master Eastern European historian like Timothy Snyder, as filtered through the lyric sensibility of a García Márquez, and suffused in the aching nostalgia of a latter-day Proust., In her elegiac new book, [Verzemnieks] describes how she hoped the faraway travels would restore her grandmother to her 'in the old stories' that still existed there....Ultimately, what she found was even broader: the meaning of home, the power of stories, and the different ways survivors and their memories move forward., [Verzemnieks] writes as if she's recounting a fable, and fills the pages with werewolves and phantom villages and barons and journeys undertaken by simple men and women, in fairytale tones, lush language, the contrast between her prose and the tale it tells devastating in its crushing polarity., In her elegiac new book, [Verzemnieks] describes how she hoped the faraway travels would restore her grandmother to her 'in the old stories' that still existed there.... Ultimately, what she found was even broader: the meaning of home, the power of stories, and the different ways survivors and their memories move forward., In this moving, lyrical memoir that draws on vivid personal accounts and extensive research, Inara Verzemnieks does not shirk from confronting the extremities of human behavior; but she also gives us the rich textures of a world in which poetic mythology coexists with sophisticated modernity, the dead mingle with the living, and the hardships of a traumatic past are countered by the strength of memory and of lasting attachments., Verzemnieks's account is personal, but by writing about national identity and asylum her book addresses our most urgent political questions. It insists with quiet elegance that, though the past eludes us, we cannot elude our past., An exquisite book for the ages as it unfolds from its first mysterious sentence into a masterpiece about war, survival, memory, and, most movingly of all, human need., Poetic, melancholy, colored by the dark beauty of the northern landscape Inara Verzemnieks inhabits (much more than merely describes), this memoir of loss and recovery from the tragedies of the twentieth century will linger in your imagination, widen your historical perspective, and make you grateful that language has such power., Poetic, melancholy, colored by the dark beauty of the northern landscape, this memoir of loss and recovery from the tragedies of the twentieth century will linger in your imagination, widen your historical perspective, and make you grateful that language has such power.", Verzemnieks... is a gracious writer, inviting the readers on her journey into the past.... Armed with her wealth of knowledge in Latvian history and myths, and her masterful and lush observations, Verzemnieks remains an able guide, earning our undivided attention and admiration., Thoughtful and eloquent.... Verzemnieks is solid on her history. Even more, she offers a model for how to navigate it. When she reaches the limit of what she can know, she doesn't confuse it with the limit of what can be known., The astute reportorial sensitivity of a master Eastern European historian like Timothy Snyder, as filtered through the lyric sensibility of a Garca Mrquez, and suffused in the aching nostalgia of a latter-day Proust., Verzemnieks...is a gracious writer, inviting the readers on her journey into the past....Armed with her wealth of knowledge in Latvian history and myths, and her masterful and lush observations, Verzemnieks remains an able guide, earning our undivided attention and admiration., "In her elegiac new book, [Verzemnieks] describes how she hoped the faraway travels would restore her grandmother "in the old stories" that still existed there...Ultimately, what she found was even broader: the meaning of home, the power of stories, and the different ways survivors and their memories move forward.", This exquisitely written book shows how recovery can come generations later through rebuilding connections--to people, the natural world, the past., Thoughtful and eloquent....Verzemnieks is solid on her history. Even more, she offers a model for how to navigate it. When she reaches the limit of what she can know, she doesn't confuse it with the limit of what can be known., Verzemnieks does not shirk from confronting the extremities of human behavior; but she also gives us the rich textures of a world in which poetic mythology coexists with sophisticated modernity, the dead mingle with the living, and the hardships of a traumatic past are countered by the strength of memory and of lasting attachments.
Dewey Edition23
Dewey Decimal305.891/93073
SynopsisInara Verzemnieks was raised by her Latvian grandparents in Washington State, among expatriates who scattered smuggled Latvian sand over coffins, the children singing folk songs about a land none of them had visited. Her grandmother Livija's stories vividly recreated the home she fled during the Second World War, when she was separated from her sister, Ausma, whom she wouldn't see again for more than fifty years. Journeying back to their remote village, Inara comes to know Ausma and her trauma as an exile to Siberia under Stalin, while reconstructing Livija's survival through her years as a refugee. In uniting their stories, Inara honors both sisters in a haunting and luminous account of loss, survival, resilience, and love. A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice., "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., 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
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