Why a Booktrail?
WW2: A city destroyed by war, remapped by Soviets now rebuilt, still has secrets to share
Burning Cities
What you need to know before your trail
Opening up about her family history, Tiina revisits the first two decades of her life following the Second World War, in Tartu, Estonia. The city, destroyed by Nazi invasion then rebuilt and re-mapped by the Soviets, is home to many secrets, and little Tiina knows them all, even if she does not know their import. The adult world that makes up Communist society, is one of cryptic conversations, undiagnosed dread and heavy drinking. From the death of Stalin to the gradual separation of her parents, Tiina, as a young girl, experiences both domestic and great events from the periphery, and is, therefore, powerless to prevent the defining tragedy in her life – a suicide in the family.
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ResetTravel Guide
Most of the novel is set in the Estonian town of Tartu shortly after the end of World War II.
It looks back on a girl called Tiina during the 1950s–1960s, as she grows to become a young woman. She thinks back to the lives of her parents and the stories she knows of her country’s experience of the war.
Memories are often with us for life, and as Tiina looks into those of her parents, she comes to find out a lot more about her own hometown.
She grows up in a town scarred by war, despite he herself having a nice comfortable life now. Life as you can see it now, is not as it once was. There are traces of the past all around and deeply embedded in people’s minds as well as bricks and mortar.
The novel’s Estonian-language title, which directly translates to “the burning of cities”, is also the name of the popular children’s card game known as “War” in English.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Burning Cities
Destination : Tartu Author/Guide: Kai Aareleid Departure Time: WW2
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