Download or read book Soviet Milk written by Nora Ikstena and published by Peirene Press. This book was released on 2018-03-08 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The literary bestseller that took the Baltics by storm now published for the first time in English. This novel considers the effects of Soviet rule on a single individual. The central character in the story tries to follow her calling as a doctor. But then the state steps in. She is deprived first of her professional future, then of her identity and finally of her relationship with her daughter. Banished to a village in the Latvian countryside, her sense of isolation increases. Will she and her daughter be able to return to Riga when political change begins to stir? Why Peirene chose to publish this book: At first glance this novel depicts a troubled mother-daughter relationship set in the the Soviet-ruled Baltics between 1969 and 1989. Yet just beneath the surface lies something far more positive: the story of three generations of women, and the importance of a grandmother giving her granddaughter what her daughter is unable to provide – love, and the desire for life. 'Nora Ikstena is proving that Latvia is speaking in a bold and original voice.' Rosie Goldsmith, broadcaster and reviewer 'Nora Ikstena's fiction opens up new paths not only for Latvian literature in English translation but for English literature itself.' Jeremy Davis, Dalkey Archive Press

Download or read book Green Crow written by Kristine Ulberga and published by Peter Owen Publishers. This book was released on 2018-05-30 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part of the Peter Owen World Series: BalticsInstitutionalized in an asylum, a woman with a record of hallucinations commits her life story to paper. She records, from the age of six, her earliest memories of a drunken and abusive father, the strange men her mother introduced to repair the family, the imaginary forest to which she would run for safety and, of course, the talking Green Crow who appeared when she most needed her. The Green Crow is a conceited, boisterous creature who follows the novel's nameless protagonist throughout her life, until the day that the crow's presence begins to embarrass her. Confined to a tedious domestic life, she is desperate to hide the crow's very existence. Failing to do so, she winds up in a psychiatric hospital. Can she repress and renounce her acerbic, sharp-beaked daemon - or learn to love herself, bird and all? Translated from the Latvian by Zanete Vevere Pasqualini

Download or read book The Book of Riga written by Pauls Bankovskis and published by Comma Press. This book was released on 2018-04-12 with total page 137 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A suicide attempt, staged to attract as much attention as possible, from the top of St. Peter’s Church, quickly evolves into an outlandish and absurd, televised spectacle... When a PA is invited into her boss’s office one day to observe a protest unfold, just as he predicts, in the streets below, she begins to suspect his powers of foresight might extend beyond mere business matters... Finally moving into the house of her dreams, on the island of Kīpsala, a single mother discovers a strange affinity with the previous occupant... Riga may be over 800 years old as a city, but its status as capital of an independent Latvia is only a century old, with half of that time spent under Soviet rule. Despite this, it has established itself as a vibrant, creative hub, attracting artists, performers, and writers from across the Baltic region. The stories gathered here chronicle this growth and on-going transformation, and offer glimpses into the dark humour, rich history, contrasting perspectives, and love of the mythic, that sets the city’s artistic community apart. As its history might suggest, Riga is a work in progress; and for many of the characters in these stories, it is the possibilities of what the city might become, more than merely what it is now, that drives the imagination of its people. This book is published with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia and The Latvian Writers Union. Foreword by former President of Latvia (1999-2007) Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga. Translated from the Latvian by Kaija Straumanis, Suzanne McQuade, Uldis Balodis, Ieva Lešinska, Mārta Ziemelis and Žanete Vēvere Pasqualini.

Download or read book High Tide written by Inga Ābele and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Told more or less in reverse chronological order, High Tide is the story of Ieva, her dead lover, her imprisoned husband and the way their youthful decisions dramatically impacted the rest of their lives. Taking place over three decades, High Tide functions as a sort of psychological mystery, with the full scope of Ieva's personal situation and the relationship between the three main characters only becoming clear at the end of the novel. One of Latvia's most notable young writers, Abele is a fresh voice in European fiction, her prose is direct, evocative and exceptionally beautiful.

Download or read book A New History of Latvian Literature written by Ryszard Nycz and published by Peter Lang Gmbh, Internationaler Verlag Der Wissenschaften. This book was released on 2022-05-31 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this volume, scholars from diverse research fields (literature, history, art history, and folklore studies) scan the nineteenth-century Latvian literature from various perspectives, taking into account links between literature, oral culture and visual art as well as the interactions between social transformations and aesthetic developments.

Download or read book Pietr the Latvian written by Georges Simenon and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2013-11-07 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first novel which appeared in Georges Simenon's famous Maigret series, in a gripping new translation by David Bellos. Not that he looked like a cartoon policeman. He didn't have a moustache and he didn't wear heavy boots. His clothes were well cut and made of fairly light worsted. He shaved every day and looked after his hands. But his frame was proletarian. He was a big, bony man. His firm muscles filled out his jacket and quickly pulled all his trousers out of shape. He had a way of imposing himself just by standing there. His assertive presence had often irked many of his own colleagues. In Simenon's first novel featuring Maigret, the laconic detective is taken from grimy bars to luxury hotels as he traces the true identity of Pietr the Latvian. This novel has been published in previous translations as The Case of Peter the Lett and Maigret and the Enigmatic Lett. 'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray 'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century' Guardian

Download or read book God in a Cup written by Michaele Weissman and published by HMH. This book was released on 2011-06-01 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Follow the ultimate coffee geeks on their worldwide hunt for the best beans. Can a cup of coffee reveal the face of God? Can it become the holy grail of modern-day knights errant who brave hardship and peril in a relentless quest for perfection? Can it change the world? These questions are not rhetorical. When highly prized coffee beans sell at auction for $50, $100, or $150 a pound wholesale (and potentially twice that at retail), anything can happen. In God in a Cup, journalist and late-blooming adventurer Michaele Weissman treks into an exotic and paradoxical realm of specialty coffee where the successful traveler must be part passionate coffee connoisseur, part ambitious entrepreneur, part activist, and part Indiana Jones. Her guides on the journey are the nation’s most heralded coffee business hotshots: Counter Culture’s Peter Giuliano, Intelligentsia’s Geoff Watts, and Stumptown’s Duane Sorenson. With their obsessive standards and fiercely competitive baristas, these roasters are creating a new culture of coffee connoisseurship in America—a culture in which $10 lattes are both a purist’s pleasure and a way to improve the lives of third-world farmers. If you love a good cup of coffee—or a great adventure story—you’ll love this unprecedented up-close look at the people and passions behind today’s best beans. “Weissman illustrates how the origin, flavor compounds and socioeconomic impact of a cup of coffee are relevant now more than ever. . . . Tagging along behind the main characters in today’s specialty coffee scene, [she] travels from the exotic to the expected to artfully deconstruct the connoisseur’s cup of coffee.” —Publishers Weekly

Download or read book The Year the River Froze Twice written by Inga Abele and published by . This book was released on 2020-10-22 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Andrievs Radvilis is a former jockey on the Riga trotting track whose solitary retirement is interrupted when a young journalist comes to interview him about his career. Their meeting leads to a journey of reminiscence across Latvia, never straying far from the mighty Daugava river, which flows through the story as Radvilis recalls his early life. The weeks leading up to the fateful date of 25 March 1949, when Stalin launched his deportation campaign in Soviet Latvia, form the main historical backdrop of this novel. As an independent-minded man who would not engage with Stalinism nor compromise with the truth, Radvilis is imprisoned and blacklisted. Bitter experience of war, love and politics lead him to trust horses more than people. Inga Ābele was born in Riga in 1972. She studied biology at the University of Latvia, and worked for three years as a trainer on a horse-breeding farm. Her work shows evidence of her rigorous scientific training, balanced with her deep understanding of human motives. Ābele's prose works are the product of thorough research; she is fascinated by the little-known by-ways of Latvian history and its more unsung heroes.

Download or read book DOOM 94 written by Jānis Joņevs and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Doom 94 is Jonevs' debut novel, published first as Jelgava 94 in Latvia in 2013 and was quickly proved to be a big hit and bestseller. Translated into 11 languages already, it is here for the first time in English. The story is set in the 1990s in the Latvian city of Jelgava and looks at the burgeoning craze during this decade for the alternative culture of heavy metal music. Jonevs takes the reader deep inside the world of music, combining the intimate diary of a youngster trying to find himself by joining a subculture, as well as a skilful, detailed, and almost documentary-like depiction of the beginnings of the second independence of Latvia-where Jonevs is the first writer to stir up memories of this period through a fully-fledged literary depiction. Doom 94 is a portrait of a generation searching for their identity and up against the world, trying not to become 'one of them'. But is it for real? Can any adult keep the promise made as a child?

Download or read book Latvia in World War II written by Valdis O. Lumans and published by Fordham Univ Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 572 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Valdis Lumans provides an authoritative, balanced, and comprehensive account of one of the most complex, and conflicted, arenas of the Second World War. Struggling against both Germany and the Soviet Union, Latvia emerged as an independent nation state after the First World War. In 1940, the Soviets occupied neutral Latvia, deporting or executing more than 30,000 Latvians before the Nazis invaded in 1941 and installed a puppet regime. The Red Army expelled the Germans in 1944 and reincorporated Latvia as a Soviet Republic. By the end of the war, an estimated 180,000 Latvians fled to the West. The Soviets would deport at least another 100,000. Drawing on a wide range of sources--many brought together here for the first time--Lumans synthesizes political, military, social, economic, diplomatic, and cultural history. He moves carefully through traditional sources, many of them partisan, to scholarship emerging since the end of the Cold War, to confront such issues as political loyalties, military collaboration, resistance, capitulation, the Soviet occupation, anti-Semitism, and the Latvian role in the Holocaust.

Download or read book Juan in America written by Eric Linklater and published by Stacey International. This book was released on 2008 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Set in the year before the Wall Street crash, Juan in America is a classic evocation of the final mania of prohibition, as seen through equally maverick British eyes. The character Eric Linklater devised to be his unreliable explorer was one capable of absorbing the enormity of the American experience without being overwhelmed by its incongruities. A blithe, bastard descendent of Byrone(tm)s Don Juan, Linklater's Juan is an anti-hero with a taste for the grotesque and the ridiculous, at once both dirty and deity whose response when faced either with sudden catastrophe or miraculous survival is simply to laugh.A novel in the mode of the picaresque, this is a story of erotic discovery in the sense, as Juan puts it, that eoeyour trousers hide not only your nakedness but your kinship to the clown.e A nation emerging as a great power is exalting in absurdist energies. In its last spasms before the great depression, America is revealed through a series of unlikely accidents as Juan stumbles from state to state, somehow evading consequences as he goes. On his first day, he falls for the daughter of a gangster, witnesses a murder in a speakeasy and watches a woman leap to her death in a New York street. He thrills to the bizarreness of each spectacle and moves on to the next in a galloping mood that is part medieval romance, part running commentary on what was still, in the 1920s, the new world.

Download or read book The Dogs of Riga written by Henning Mankell and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2011-03 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When a life raft carrying the bodies of two Eastern European criminals washes up on the Swedish coastline, Inspector Kurt Wallender travels to Riga, Latvia, where he struggles against corruption and deceit and risks his own life to uncover the truth.

Download or read book In the Shadow of Death written by Rūdolfs Blaumanis and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rūdolfs Blaumanis's 1899 short story masterpiece, based on a contemporary newspaper account, tells of several fishermen lost at sea after the ice floe on which they work calves off and drifts away rapidly. One by one, the thirteen men and a boy must deal with the creeping reality that they may not see the mainland -- or their loved ones -- again. There is fish to eat, and two horses if necessary, but the very surface of the floe is eroding steadily ... and the nights are cold and terrible. Without ever moralising or over-elaborating, Blaumanis coolly and efficiently observes the state of each of the main characters in turn, whether natural leaders, optimists, craven opportunists, terrified, stoic, compassionate or alienated. In the shadow of encroaching death, each must come to some kind of reckoning.

Download or read book Library of Congress Subject Headings written by Library of Congress and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 1548 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Library of Congress Subject Headings written by Library of Congress. Cataloging Policy and Support Office and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 1512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Contemporary Latvian Poetry written by Inara Cedrins and published by Uno Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This anthology, the first in the Baltic series, presents three generations of poets from Latvia: those born before the Soviet occupation, during it, and shortly before the country regained independence in the 1990's. This poetry will catch you by surprise as it lays out individual experiences of exile and homeland.

Download or read book The Girl from Riga written by Sibilla Hershey and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-04-12 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Sibilla Hershey was eight years old, she and her family fled the Soviet troops and left their home in Riga, Latvia. She, her mother, her father, and her ten-year-old brother became refugees. They lived in camps, learned new languages, and yearned for the day when they would once again have a country to call their own. After spending six years displaced and moving from campsite to campsite, Hershey's family came to the United States to finally begin a new life. Hershey studied chemistry to earn a living and eventually social work to help others like herself. Hershey has always wanted to tell her story, but she felt held back by the linguistic challenges she faced. Over time, she began to write poetry about her life. Now, for the first time, she's written a memoir in prose detailing her early struggles and the journey that took her from refugee to immigrant to citizen.