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ghilimei's review
challenging
dark
1.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Physical abuse, and Death
Moderate: Cancer and Suicide
alfia's review
5.0
These are beautiful, sometimes sad and disturbing stories from Nora Ikstena, a modern Latvian author writing about Latvia and Latvians in the period leading up to and after Latvia's independence from the Soviet Union. Most of the stories are about women coping with some challenge, be it mental illness, loss, caring for the sick, trying to fit in, old age, or just the complacency of one's own well-lived life. There is a moving ambivalence in some of these women who deeply experience the essential beauty of existence and yet accept, if not yearn for their own removal from it. Even when there is a rejection or loss of life, there is a hypnotic sensuality in its apprehension. The translation can be a bit bumpy at times but it doesn't detract from the exquisite imagery, compelling characters and plot lines drawn by Ikstena. I wish there were more available from her in English.
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