Opening of book "Ko manas vecmāmiņas man nestāstīja"

On 9 July, the Museum launched Ko manas vecmāmiņas man nestāstīja (Stories My Grandmothers Didn't Tell Me), a book by Andra Putnis, published by Zvaigzne ABC.

This deeply personal and emotional book takes readers on a journey through family history, by examining the experiences of two Latvian families in exile and their struggle to maintain their identity. In her debut book, Andra Putnis recounts the lives of her grandmothers, Milda Masens-Berzins (1913–1997) and Alina Putnis (1924–2021). Both survived the horrors of the Second World War, after which they went on to live in exile in Australia.

The book was first published in English in Australia in 2023 under the title Stories My Grandmothers Didn't Tell Me. It was appreciated by both literary critics and readers as an emotionally profound and contemporary work that sheds light on how war, exile and migration leave their mark on family memory. Latvian readers will recognise many similarities between their own experiences and those of the post-war generations in exile, as they search for their identity.

Daina Grūbe translated the book into Latvian. 
Copies are available from the Zvaigzne ABC bookshops.