In this novel, Gundega Repše sheds light on events that until now had received only pointed silence. Therein lies the symbolic gesture of Bogene: to address the subject instantly, directly, and first-hand. Only then does the author let her readers regain their footing and gather up the threads of information.This is how we can come to understand the inner workings of silence. There’s no single answer – just like with speech, silence is both a strength and a weakness. The opposing side consist of the victim and salvation. One of the main purposes is to articulate and express feelings that have been repressed for so long – and to reveal the violence and suffering for what they were: visceral, corporeal, immediate and in shocking contrast to the clear vision and soaring spirit always looking to the future.

Lote is on a train headed east in the sweltering summer of 1941. She remembers the past, but forbids herself to think about it, much less talk about it. Lote spirals into silence, shifting the trajectory of her life from a future where she experiences new love, hopes and dreams, to the present, the now, inwardly – to life, existence, expressing herself only in the simple and basic phrases she needs to survive. The minimalism of living, keeping your mouth shut and helping others – this is the world according to Lote, a mute and broken existence, an unlikely victim. Repše has portrayed her protagonist with subdued compassion, refraining from exaggeration and drama, yet still articulating the long-silenced suffering by giving it greater meaning.

Contacts: Dace Sparāne-Freimane, dace.sparane-freimane@dgramata.lv

The book describes a time before both the author and the novel’s narrator, Erika, were born; its historical foundation is rooted in the post-war life of the Latvian intelligentsia, in the tragic fate of the so-called “French Group” and their search for intellectual nobility. The story is told from the point of view of Erika, born to Kārlis and Magda during the exile of Kārlis’s wife Dagmāra. Just as the French Group’s members were exiled to Siberia, the novel’s heroine Dagmāra too suffers the horrors of deportation, as did Kārlis’s mother before her. Their lives are destroyed by the age in which they live – Kārlis stops painting because his work isn’t being recognized, and he undergoes treatment for alcoholism. Dagmāra dies early, her translations unpublished. Marked by Fire’s ringlike composition ends in 1987, when, rereading what she wrote thirteen years prior, Erika marvels at the self-righteous tone of her memories. Taking into account that these notes were written when she was eighteen, the narrator’s impatience with the vagueness of historical events is an understandable youthful ardour. At the end of the novel, Erika is working in the library of a seaside village, where she becomes certain that the passage of time is no excuse, and where better than in a world of valuable books, like an eternal flame – a place of remembrance that never burns out.

Contacts: Bārbala Simsone, barbala.simsone@zvaigzne.lv 

Written in the style of a diary, The Tin Scream centres on the world of a 1970s teenager, a world that refelcts the ongoing social and psychological processes of society. At the beginning of the book, Rugetta, the main protagonist, is attending school in the 6th grade and, on a friend’s recommendation, she starts keeping a diary. This reveals the everyday life at an elite Soviet school, friendships and betrayals, a protest over the presence of Russians and an admiration for Tarkovsky and world culture, including Bach and Shakespeare. There is also a realignment of ideals – hence the title of the novel, tin being a metal that is ductile and easily wrought, and the noise it makes when broken is called “the tin scream”. With this novel the writer offers readers a rich, evocatively drawn gallery of characters who have been delightfully and wittily rendered, despite the tragic circumstances of that era. The world-renowned Latvian theatre director Alvis Hermanis and his theatre company, the New Riga Theatre, staged a production based on motifs from the novel, and this too has enjoyed public acclaim. 

Contacts: Kaspars Eizentāls, kaspars.eizentals@petergailis.lv