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

A powerfully toldmemoir of family, separation, and the things left unsaid, in the wake of theSecond World War

Raised by her grandparents i theUSA, Inara Verzemnieks grew up among expatriates, scattering smuggled Latviansand over the coffins of the dead, singing folk songs about a land she hadnever visited. Her grandmother Livija's stories recalled the remote village inLatvia left behind, where she and her sister, Ausma, were separated during theSecond World War. They would not see each other again for more than fiftyyears.

Coming to know Ausma and the trauma of her exile toSiberia under Stalin, Inara pieces together her grandmother's survival throughthe years as a refugee, and her grandfather's own troubling history as aconscript in the Nazi forces. As she interweaves two parts of the family storyin spellbinding, lyrical prose, she offers us a profound and cathartic accountof loss and survival, resilience and love. See more