Push, push (Stum,stum, 2004) was received with great curiosity as Andra Neiburga to returned to adult fiction after a 16 year absence since her muchpraised debut short story collection
Stuffed Birds, and Birds in Cages (Izbāzti putni un putni būros, 1988). Not only
was Push, Push one of the most talked about books of the year, but it’s since
become a popular staple in secondary school curriculums, which hasn’t lost its ability
to surprise and even shock a new generation of readers.
Latvian literary critic Ieva Kolmane said the following of Neiburga's work: “All of her
stories are constructed from the inside out, building from the characters’ individual
experiences, memories, thoughts and reflections (..). The great variety of her characters
also considerably widen their appeal – even if there’s a reader who hasn’t spent a lot of
time worrying about existential problems, they will have had to waste a considerable
effort dealing with their lives and relationships in a manner similar to at least one the
possibilities offered by Neiburga.”
Latvian writer Pauls Bankovskis had this to say about her work: “The stories are full
of drama and subtleties, which encapsule the narratives that would normally require
a generational novel. Neiburga’s “family” is her generation – the wounded souls, the
unhappily happy people, the ones pushed and shoved by their lives and history, the
ones left standing in the doorway between the 20th and 21st centuries. Her prose is
colloquialy grotesque yet at the same time harshly ironic, poetic and emotionally
precise. (..) Push, Push is, without a shadow of doubt, most noteworthy book in 21st
century Latvian literature.”

Contacts: Jāņa Rozes apgāds, info@jr.lv