My mother was born in Riga, and with her mother, escaped during WW II. I have other family members who were exiled to Siberia. I have many family members who still reside in Latvia today, both in Riga as well as in the surrounding farmlands.

This is a book about my roots, and it helped me to understand. Understand how my grandmother put complete faith in a tea-leaf reader before running to Germany to seek safety. Understand how stories about their struggles in the refugee camps are rare and vague. Understand how, despite the hardships my relatives faced, there is nothing but joy when they get together around the dinner table each and every night after a hard day of farming.

When I was young and needed to write a report about "where I came from," I wanted to write about Latvia. The information I gathered was often found in the footnotes of books or the cryptic stories of my hard-to-reach ancestors. I was a child without history and this challenge drove me further into a desire to understand and a shame that for whatever reason, it felt I didn't matter.

Thank you, Inara Verzemnieks, for shedding light on those who have struggled to survive, and those of us who struggled to understand.15 s Hank StueverAuthor 3 books2,024

An astonishingly vivid and deeply moving work of family history by Inara Verzemnieks -- as impressive, I think, as Susan Faludi's "In the Darkroom," and about as close to a perfectly realized melding of memoir and personal investigation into world events as it gets. Inara (disclosure: a friend of mine) journeys from the United States back to Latvia to meet and live for a time with her grandmother's sister and other family members, on a quest to know more of the tragedies that separated the family from the ancestral farm and from one another during World War II and the resulting Soviet occupation, and to examine the scars and emotions that remain. The writing here is heartbreakingly precise, poetic, informative, earthy and true; something on every page will make you stop and take a breath. A positive Washington Post review indicated that there is almost too much beauty and pain to absorb here, but I fail to see how that could be a bad thing in this case. I am in awe of what Inara has done here and highly recommend this book to others.15 s E. OzolsAuthor 2 books8

This was a tough one to rate, and really I think I come down more around 3.4 stars than three- technically I'm more than neutral on it, but not quite more enough to say I d it.

Starting with the obvious pro: I'm a child of Latvian refugees; Verzemnieks is the child of Latvian refugees; the protagonist is the child of Latvian refugees. So, yeah, I obviously have a very personal connection to this subject matter. Verzemnieks does an eloquent job of telling the full Latvian WWII and post-war story, including recent history when the Latvians wedged apart for decades come back together to compare notes. I'm not sure just how clear or interesting all this history is to non-Latvians who pick up this novel; hopefully clear and interesting enough that they learn something or are inspired to research further, but I'm too close to the subject matter to know.

The second major plus: this novel is BEAUTIFULLY written. Verzemnieks certainly has a way of making her words capture the mood of the story (which is depressing, FYI). She is truly talented in this regard. BUT...

...here's where I have trouble. Another reviewer said something roughly along the lines of "her beautiful writing is so beautiful that it gets in the way of the story." I think that pretty much hits the nail on the head for me. There isn't really much of a story to follow here. At points when plot does seem interesting, it moves too slowly because we have to stop and pause to keep digesting the flood of romantic prose. There is excellent world-building, and lovely intertwining subplots, but its not clear to me what we are building it for or what our main focus should be. At the end our protagonist starts crying because she can release her grandmother's memory, and I was thinking "Oh... wait was that the point of all this? Huh."

I think I would still definitely recommend this book to any Latvian-American who would to read a high-caliber novel about themselves (and who doesn't!), and hopefully you'll all find yourselves more drawn in than I was.8 s Michael1,112 2

Amazing book. amazing story! This book is so well written and calls on so many emotions. I love how the story is intertwined and makes you feel you are there experiencing/seeing/smelling what is being described. This is a fantastic telling of a incredible story. I highly recommend this book. I won this book in a GoodReads Giveaway.history8 s Ilona BrayAuthor 35 books9

Can I just leave it as "Wow"? Because I'm not sure I have the words with which to do justice to this amazing book--part World War II history, part personal journey, all told in an arresting form of writing that's as close to poetry as prose. I recommend it for anyone worrying that the world of soundbites and social media has destroyed their ability to settle into a chair for a good long read! 6 s Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship1,218 1,369

This is a lovely multigenerational memoir. The author is the daughter and granddaughter of Latvian refugees who fled their home country at the end of WWII, and she returns to Latvia after her the death of the grandmother who raised her to learn more about the country and her family’s stories. Much of the book traces the lives of her grandmother – raised on a farm she would forever idealize, before going to school, moving to the city, and ultimately fleeing across war-torn Europe with her two young children, not knowing whether her conscripted husband was dead or alive – and her grandmother’s younger sister, who was trapped on the farm by the war, then deported to Siberia with her family, to finally return and pick up the pieces all over again. Separated for fifty years, the sisters both seemed to envy the other: Ausma envies the glamorous older sister who got away, while Livija, who finally lands in Tacoma, lives in the past, clinging to the Latvian community in exile and raising her granddaughter in its traditions.

It’s a lovely, thoughtful, atmospheric and emotionally rich memoir, and quite comprehensive for its length, with diversions into Latvian history recent and remote and even geological, but always centered on the family and the countryside they both love intensely and often want or need to escape. The artsiness of the writing style was a bit of a stumbling block for me in the beginning – this is definitely an MFA memoir – but by the end I felt the literary style helps distinguish the book. And I appreciated the author’s reckoning with complex topics, such as how those men, including her own grandfather, who were conscripted into the Latvian Legion – meaning they were fighting for the Nazis, but against the Soviets – should be judged. I felt throughout that the author was searching for truth and comfortable with nuance. And of course, I was especially thrilled to find a high-quality book about Latvia, a country rarely featured in literature. I recommend it.4-stars-and-a-half best-10-books-read-in-2019 family-saga ...more4 s Sandra pielasit_sirdi611 116



“All those years, as I watched my grandfather convulse and cry in silent agony, I never once considered that maybe he hurt so badly not because of the wounds he received that day, but because he had not die. “



Vai ir iesp?jams zemi saukt par m?ti, surog?tm?ti, sav? darb? In?ra V?rzemnieks jaut? sev un las?t?jam. Uzaugusi kop? ar vecvec?kiem, kas kara laik? k? b?g?i devušies prom no m???s dzimtenes Latvijas, ar jaundzimušo uz rok?m, p?c gadiem non?kot ASV, In?ra sev? uzs?c skumjas, neremdin?mas ilgas un atmi?as no vecm?mi?as st?stiem. T? nav vienk?rši gr?mata par Latvijas skaudro pag?tni, karu, izs?t?šanu un b?g?u gait?m, tas ir st?sts par savas identit?tes mekl?šanu, atgriešanos pie sakn?m, un ?en?tisko mantojumu, kurš tiek nodots no paaudzes paaudz?, nedodot mieru un m??inot saprast to, kas palicis neizst?st?ts, un k? tas viss ietekm?jis autores b?rn?bu.

Gr?mata ir trausli personisks st?sts, kas neizlaiž ar? r?gto pusi par atkaltikšanos, aprautajiem likte?iem un salauztaj?m dv?sel?m, kuru sadzied?šanai vajadz?s vair?kas paaudzes.

Las?t nebija viegli, st?st?jums skrien cauri pag?tnes, tagadnes un daž?do likte?u laika posmiem, bet taj? pat laik? tas bija tik interesanti paskat?ties uz latvisko noz?mi no t?da cilv?ka skatupunkta, kurš dzimis un dz?vojis ?rpus Latvijas un to visu uzkr?jis sev? k? bišu š?ni?as, v?cot kop? vecvec?ku, radinieku un liec?bu piez?mes. Turkl?t vecvec?ku skološan?s apk?rtne Latvij? man ir tik paz?stama un tuva.


Viens gan man t? ar? nav palicis skaidrs, k?p?c š? gr?mata nav tulkota un nav non?kusi l?dz latviski lasoša gr?matm??a rok?m?!

“I feel along with you, the Latvians say, when they want to express genuine understanding, compassion, even sympathy towards one another. “
favorites4 s Rhonda Lomazow2,180 42

An emotional beautifully written life story.We are drawn into the authors life traumas world an amazing tale.4 s Claire641 7

Another WWII book written by a granddaughter. Verzemnieks worked to balance her desire to know with the relatives' need to forget in her yearly visits to Latvia and the relatives who had stayed behind. I think she said she went five times after her grandmother died.

The grandmother managed to escape when Germany overtook Latvia; she spent 5 years in refugee camps. The Aunt stayed behind and worked the farm after the father died. When the war intruded the family was among those sent to Siberia for 5 or 10 years (I didn't write down details.) One possible reason for exile was having a relative who emigrated.

The grandmother recreated the farm in her memory and shared the recreation with the granddaughter; the experience of the farm on visits, of course, clashes with the created memory. Details of each are vivid and moving. The family members are well portrayed. The complexity of being Latvian and conscripted to fight for Germany and the added complexity of whether or not they deserved asylum added much to my understanding of war and of refugee experience. Something timely today. The people will be hard to forget.



biography-memoir non-fiction3 s Robin KirkAuthor 29 books66

Lovely exploration of family -- and lost -- memory. Is it usually true that our forbears try to hide the painful memories of the past? I wonder if that is one of the roots of our bad history-telling even in school. If we can't tell -- or bear -- the truth about our own families, then how can we bear the truths of our communities and nations? Verzemnieks quote Rebecca West - it's hard to examine "what history meant in flesh and blood." Especially in places where violence has been the rule, not the exception -- Verzemniek's Latvia, witness of "centuries of migration and flight;" my Scotland and Ireland, home of dispossession, colonization and famine; or the deep wounds of slavery, genocide and mass dispossession. Americans especially think of ourselves as geneology fans, but I suspect it's mostly for the feel-good stories of overcoming adversity and achievement, the unbearable losses and the ones who fell by the wayside, were erased, never made it off the ships -- or who never managed to board in the first place.nonfiction3 s Jessica Klimesh45

This is a beautiful book in so many ways. 3 s Dlmrose1,364 82

4+winter-challenge-20183 s katrina2

?oti pure, pies?tin?ts un pl?stošs darbs, atg?din?ja signes baumanes un andr? asimana darbus2 s DeAnn30

I cannot say enough how beautiful this book is.

I was blown away by "Among the Living and the Dead" -- in how personal yet universal it is, in how frank but sensitive, in much she can fit into so few words, in how real and now she was able to make this little-known history feel. And, as one audience member said at the reading at Powell's on Wednesday, in how much love there is in it.2 s Martha1,273 18

Another one I finally gave up on. The writing is beautiful, but ultimately I think it may get in the way of the story. I lost interest, and felt guilty as a result....because, of course, it is beautifully written. Maybe a little TOO lyrical.beautiful-writing didn-t-finish interesting_setting ...more2 s Emily Goenner Munson500 13

A beautifully written complex story of family, love and loss, and enduring. This book is memorable for the beautifully written sentences, some of which are gems, that capture moods and characters that are both specific and universal.2 s Carmen3,780 23

Inara grew up hearing her Latvian grandparents' stories. As an adult she takes several trips to Latvia to meet her aunts and uncles. Slowly she recreates her grandmother's childhood and in the process, what happened to many Latvians.memoir-biography2 s Jan42

This is an incredible book! I can’t wait to read to read whatever she writes next.2 s Kristin Boldon1,175 35

So much sadness, yet so much beauty and love in this memoir of one family's branching in the wake of war. There are no happy or simple conclusions, only complex truths, hard gleaned.2018 memoir new ...more2 s Lauma LapaAuthor 7 books30

Now I know what haunting prose is.
This is my reviewfavourite-non-fiction2 s Marianne263 4

Exquisitely beautiful and touching. Unique.2 s Krist?ne SpureAuthor 1 book84

One of the best books to depict some kind of a Latvian-ness to me. latvian-literature2 s Ajith Kunnath51

Non fiction is not literature - rarely contested is that refrain, that, it is in effect a blanket statement to begin with which also at times borders apartheidism, if you will.I beg to differ. Memoirs, autobiographies, and travelogues for a few examples where the author is at liberty to embellish the narrative without fudging the facts, that satiates your literary cravings as well as stay on the factful course (for “fact” dictates the literary segregation) are all as good literature as what MJ is to pop music. Just my 2 cents.

Born and brought up in the US, and inspired by her grandmother Livija's accounts about Latvia where Livija grew up, author Inara sets out to trace her ancestry of hers and uncovers - the history of Latvia, of how neglectful of a child of Europe was that country during the 2nd world war, of her grandparents ordeal when the war broke out, of the heart wrenching displacements that ensued, the losses suffered, and the reconciliations half a century later. Gulbene, the Latvian town to where Inara travels to to visit her grandmother's younger sister Ausma, is idyllic while it also conjures up the memories and the ruins it underwent.

This book of Inara's is - partly memoir, partly biographical, partly historical, partly investigative, mostly bucolic, mostly nostalgic, mostly beautiful, mostly poignant - so many of the venn diagram circles encroaching each other's outrageously, fits the literature bill very well.2024-reads1 Nicholas Huggins3

This book had my attention and interest throughout. Inara shares her family's story in Latvia over the past century and all the joy, suffering, and atrocities that accompany it. Through the telling of her family's story, it has provided me with a much clearer understanding and appreciation of the Latvian people, culture, and history. A well-written book about a story and country rarely talked about; I would be quick to recommend to a friend. 1 Megan242 5

Wow. I really, really loved this book. Probably one of the better memoirs I've read in a while.

I loved how the author weaved past and present, and also how they intertwined the history of Latvia with the history of their family.

It's easy to forget (as someone with no ties there) how impacted the Baltics were during WWII. The countries were small and had only been independent for a short while, so they get glanced over in (American) history lessons.

I've also read very little about the forced exiles of different ethnic groups under Stalin, but this book made me want to read more.

Overall, a very captivating, moving book.favorites history memoir-autobiographies ...more1 Christine The Uncorked Librarian480 1 follower

Among The Living and the Dead is well-written and offers great insight in Latvian history. Poetic and somber, the novel is as much of a homecoming as finding one's roots.

You can find the full review on The Uncorked Librarian here: https://theuncorkedlibrarian.com/balt....baltics nonfiction1 Daina95 9

The history of refugees is an entire segment of American history — a segment about which many people know little. After World War II many European war refugees were able to eventually resettle in the U.S. Inara Verzemnieks’s book is the story of one such family and how its personal history affects their American-born daughter/granddaughter, who spent so many years hearing stories about distant - and, at the time, occupied - Latvia, as well as bits and pieces of her family’s story that as an adult she is driven to discover her grandparents’ homeland and to unearth more of the family’s past.

While this memoir is essentially required reading for anyone with refugee ancestors, it’s a book from which many Americans can learn. The trauma of fleeing one’s home due to impending danger or unsafe circumstances is trauma that stays with that person and can impact even descendants. Being a refugee is not a choice anyone makes lightly — it is often the only choice for self-preservation. And the ensuing path is typically rough.

Verzemnieks is a gifted writer, and much of the book is easily readable and comprehensible. Her explanations of Latvian history and Latvian war refugees’ situations are mostly excellent.

I may be biased due to my own Latvian heritage, as well as Verzemnieks being close to me in age, but I am particularly picky about books which touch upon our heritage and history. I am also relatively choosy about books I read and then recommend, but this books clears all of these hurdles.1 Meepspeeps677

This is a beautifully written memoir, sometimes so beautiful that I had a hard time discerning the actual meaning. “We were too young to know that there is a difference between the exile’s memory of home, which remains perfectly still, immobile, as if encased in a carapace, and a homeland’s memory of itself, which drags itself from the shallows each day, molted, tender, new.” Say what? The story of the two sisters and how the author heard their memories is compelling. I appreciated the author describing some horrors of war without the graphic details. I recommend it to any WWII buff and others who want to understand the difficulties of conscription, fleeing voluntarily as a refugee, and being forcibly displaced. 1 Nancy Jarmin28 2

Inara Verzemnieks writes of her family, both those in Washington State and in Latvia. She writes with the depth of one who, along with the comics her grandmother read to her, has absorbed family history and the songs, dances and myths of her heritage. With her, we experience the wartime tearing apart of family and the trauma of fleeing ones native land in the midst of battle. We feel the immigrants' fears for those who remained and endured decades of the brutal Soviet system. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, we travel with the writer to meet the family members who stayed. Along the beautiful, forested lanes of northern Latvia, we see the remains of farms, the nearly abandoned countryside, the desecration of the old family home. This is a collective memory of a family but also of a small, determined, country that has endured repeated foreign occupation and the wars of its large, powerful neighbors. The book is a study of human behavior, Baltic history and Latvian mythology. I highly recommend this lovely book.1 Jill809 22

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