Soviet Milk - Paperback

by Nora Ikstena (Author), Margita Gailitis (Translator)

The literary bestseller that took the Baltics by storm.

This novel considers the effects of Soviet rule on a single individual. The central character in the story tries to follow her calling as a doctor, but then the state steps in. She is deprived first of her professional future, then of her identity and finally of her relationship with her daughter. Banished to a village in the Latvian countryside, her sense of isolation increases. Will she and her daughter be able to return to Riga when political change begins to stir?

Author Biography

Nora Ikstena was born in 1969 in Riga, Latvia. She studied at the University of Latvia before moving to New York. On her return to the Baltics she helped establish the Latvian Literature Centre. She published her first novel, Celebration of Life, in 1998 and has written over twenty books since. She has won numerous awards, such as the Order of the Three Stars for Services to Literature and the Baltic Assembly Prize. Soviet Milk won the 2015 Annual Latvian Literature Award (LALIGABA) for Best Prose.

Margita Gailitis has translated some of Latvia's finest poetry and prose into English, including Sandra Kalmiete's With Dance Shoes in Sibirian Snows and Māra Zālīte's Five Fingers.