Booktrails of the Baltic Countries
This year, the Baltic countries – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – are celebrating the centennial of their independent republics in 2018, introducing the exciting chance to discover epic past and vibrant, inventive present through the strong voice of modern literature. Cherishing all that they have in common, the three Baltic Countries are joining intellectual and creative forces to express unique experiences through unique stories and will be this year’s Market Focus at London Book Fair 2018 (10th – 12th April).
The Market Focus logo at the London Book Fair
Estonia
Rein Raud, The Death of the Perfect Sentence (Vagabond Voices, 2017)
A political thriller set mainly in Estonia during the dying days of the Soviet Union, but also in Russia, Finland and Sweden. This sometimes wistful examination of how the Estonian Republic was reborn after a long hiatus speaks also of the courage and complex chemistry of those who pushed against a regime whose then weakness could not have been known to them.
Burning Cities,Kai Aareleid,Peter Owen Publishers
WW2: A city destroyed by war, remapped by Soviets now rebuilt, still has secrets to share
Latvia:
Kristīne Ulberga, Green Crow (Peter Owen, 2018)
Institutionalized 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 to safety, and, of course, the enormous talking green crow who appeared when she most needed him. The imaginary ‘Green Crow’ travels on a journey to Jurmala, a Latvian resort city on the Gulf of Riga known for wooden, art nouveau seaside villas, Soviet-era sanatoriums and long, sandy Jūrmala Beach. Ulberga’s The Green Crow is a fable about womanhood, individual freedom and the strait-jacket of traditional gender roles.
Henning Mankell (Dogs of Riga)
Inspector Kurt Wallander and his team receive an anonymous tip-off. A few days later a life raft is washed up on a beach. In it are two men, dressed in expensive suits, shot dead.
The dead men were criminals, victims of what seems to have been a gangland hit. But what appears to be an open-and-shut case soon takes on a far more sinister aspect. Wallander travels across the Baltic Sea, to Riga in Latvia, where he is plunged into a frozen, alien world of police surveillance, scarcely veiled threats, and lies.
Doomed always to be one step behind the shadowy figures he pursues, only Wallander’s obstinate desire to see that justice is done brings the truth to light.
Jānis Joņevs, Doom 94 (Wreckingball 2018)
Jonevs’ debut, this quickly became a bestseller in Latvia and has already been translated into six languages, with a further three due soon. Doom 94 is a portrait of a generation in the 1990s who are searching for their own identity and are fans of alternative culture. This is a touching story about us as youngsters, when everybody is against the whole world and tries not to become ‘one of them’. But is it for real? Can one keep the promise? Set in Jelgava, a lesser known destination in Latvia.
Lithuania:
In Lithuanian Wood
An insight into post-communist Lithuania. If you ever wondered how the years of communist rule affected the way people think, act, and live in such a country, then this book does at least allow you to not just see but feel and experience what they do. Experiences are written as short stories, but as a whole, the overall story is a delicately woven quilt of the country’s true history.
Folktales of Lithunia
Stories such as these which have passed down from one generation to the next, from one family to another, from one region to another often highlight and offer an insight into the culture and people of that country, as well as the heart and soul of its language….not just for children. Read these and you’ll learn a great deal about the true face of a country’s culture.
More later in the week – for now take a look at BookTrails in the Baltics
