Among the Living and the Dead: A Tale of Exile and Homecoming

By Inara Verzemnieks

A powerfully told memoir of family, separation, and the things left unsaid, in the wake of the Second World War
Raised by her grandparents in the USA, Inara Verzemnieks grew up among expatriates, scattering smuggled Latvian sand over the coffins of the dead, singing folk songs about a land she had never visited. Her grandmother Livija's stories recalled the remote village in Latvia left behind, where she and her sister, Ausma, were separated during the Second World War. They would not see each other again for more than fifty years.
Coming to know Ausma and the trauma of her exile to Siberia under Stalin, Inara pieces together her grandmother's survival through the years as a refugee, and her grandfather's own troubling history as a conscript in the Nazi forces. As she interweaves two parts of the family story in spellbinding, lyrical prose, she offers us a profound and cathartic account of loss and survival, resilience and love.
Inara Verzemnieks teaches creative non-fiction at the University of Iowa. She has won a Pushcart Prize and a Rona Jaffe Writer's Award, and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in feature writing. She lives in Iowa City, Iowa.

• Language: English
• Publisher: ONE
• Release date: Apr 5, 2018
• ISBN: 9781782274308

Reviews for Among the Living and the Dead

[downstreamer_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a remarkable book. A combination of personal memoir and deeply researched history, it is written in a looping, dreamy way, lyrical and ordinary at the same time. The author's metaphors are original and striking. Her vocabulary of structural decay (of abandoned houses and bombed out buildings) is in itself worth the price of admission. I learn much of my history through fiction or creative non-fiction and this book led me to a much deeper understanding of the plight of the Latvians during and after WWII. Also, the parallels of the fate of the Latvians to that of the present day Ukrainians under Putin's onslaught make the book even more timely and relevant. It turns out that the "filtration camps" which Ukrainians are being sent to, in Russia, against their will, is nothing but a continuation of the forced evacuations perpetrated on the Latvians under Stalin. But seriously, read this book for its, stark beauty, its original metaphors, and the deep emotion of a truly great personal memoir, uncovered slowly over time.

[lovinglit · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

There are a thousand stories like the one that this book tells. When you ask a Latvian (or Lithuanian, or an Estonian, or a person from any other small nation that has been occupied on and off for centuries), everyone has a war story of loss and trauma and separation. That is why my relatives in Latvia were nonplussed when they heard that my farther's story would be written and published years ago. This story is distinct from any other I have read for its seamlessly inter-woven non-linear plot, its evocative and poetic language, and the emotional kick that the combination delivers. Inara, the author, was raised by her Latvian grandparents who were settled in the US as refugees from WWII. Throughout her childhood she is kept up with Latvian ways in part by the existence of a strong community in the place her grandparents were settled, but mostly because her carers have a deep sense of place and an intense love of and mourning for their place birth. The sense of loss that her displaced grandmother has is palpable, and Inara traces her and her families histories throughout the course of this book.The story unfolds beautifully, and it retains its beauty and poetry throughout. Although it contains elements of both, this is not a book of war facts, nor a personal legacy book. What it is, is something altogether unique and could be read for the beautiful use of language alone. In addition, it parallels (to a certain degree) my own family history and so adds to what I know about some of the experiences my relatives faced. Anyone interested in WWII or refugees or history could read this book, it certainly gave me a renewed sense of empathy for those displaced by war.