Sign-In
Cart
How Long Is Exile?: BOOK III: The Long Road Home (Large Print Edition)
Paperback
Baltic HistoryPlaysWorld War II
ISBN13: 9781735694863
Publisher: Abs Pub
Published: Sep 23 2020
Pages: 454
Weight: 1.46
Height: 1.01 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
At the end of Book I How Long is Exile? The Song and Dance Festival of Free Latvians, widowed Milda Arajs had taken a new direction in her life. She had decided to break solidarity with her mainstream ethnic community and make good her promise to her daughter Ilga that they would make a pilgrimage to Soviet Latvia at Christmas time (1983) and welcome the baby Krijanis, born to American Mara and Latvian Igors, as the symbol of a new era. Also, Milda had chosen to give herself to Peteris Vanags, the one-armed veteran she encountered in the Esslingen DP camp after the war. (Story in Book IIOut of the Ruins of Germany.) They married shortly before the momentous trip, and soon thereafter Milda joined him in Washington, D.C. For a decade they lived happily, making up for lost years of forbidden longing and desireuntil the Soviet Union fell, and the Kingdom of Exile felt the shocks and afershocks.
Unbeknown to herself, Milda's Christmas trip behind the Iron Curtain, with all its revalations, was her first step on her Long Road Home. Also, that trip at the height of American women's liberation movement, marked her adult coming of age and becoming the ruler of her life. Released from domestic bonds, she struck out on her own and challenged her mind to higher things. When Peter, in the late 1980s, was asked to join Radio Free Europe in Munich, Milda saw her Road clearly winding its way back to Latvia. This, naturally threatened the marriage. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the Road become bumpy, even trecherous. Afraid and out of step, Peter seemed to lag behind, while Milda hurried forward now that the iron curtain was swept away. With firm steps she returned to her homeland; she reunited with her sister Zelda and reclaimed their parents' apartment. Peter complied and came up with the money, but, as if lost, he often went off by himself, afraid of being watched and pursued until he could not walk anymore. After his death and after the guarded secrets were revealed, Milda took her last steps on The Long Road Home alone.
Exile was over, but the sense of exile was imbedded in Milda's mind forever, and it was heavy. She felt the weight most poignantly as she watched fireworks grace the skies at elaborate festivals, where strangers celebrated, frolicking and singing to her unknown songs, and young people rush about in search for passages to new lands, where the grass seemed greener and fame and fortune beckened from clouds with silver linings.
As a participant in that, so called Exile State, I began writing my version of the experience after the Milwaukee festival, filtering it through the consciousness of my main character Milda Berziņa-Arajs, who, coming out of mourning for her husband Karlis Arajs, arrives at the festival, ready to turn a new leaf in her life. During the four days with like-minded people, interesting events, and common recollections of her childhood, the war and post-war experiences in a displaced persons' camp flash before her in a swirling kaleidescope and, at the end, throws her in the direction she did not plan to go.
Book III captures the mood after the fall of the USSR. The ethnic communities the Kingdom of Exile is shaken, and the people awake as if from a deep sleep. Milda suddenly becomes active; she makes crucial decisions and switches from an outdated romantic into a realist as she returns home, meets her estranged sister and the country she had left behind. As she tries to find her place in it, she understands that exile is a state of mind; it is a state where half the world's population liveslike sheuprooted by tyranny and wars. Yet she and other displaced persons go on living and finding pleasure in art, poetry, song, and in each other, though with a sad, melancholy smile.
1 different editions
Also available
How Long Is Exile?: BOOK III: The Long Road Home (Large Print Edition)
Barbins-Stahnke, Astrida
Hardcover
Also in
Baltic History
Slovak Settlers Volume 1 of 2: The Emotional History of Immigration
Palovic, Zuzana
Bereghazyova, Gabriela
Paperback
History of Scandinavia: A Captivating Guide to the History of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and Finland
History, Captivating
Hardcover
Slovak Settlers Volume 2 of 2: The Emotional History of Immigration
Bereghazyova, Gabriela
Palovic, Zuzana
Paperback
A Towering Flame: The Life & Times of the Elusive Latvian Anarchist Peter the Painter
Ruff, Philip
Paperback
The Wolf and the Cross: An Orthodox Pilgrim's History of Lithuania
Damick, Andrew Stephen
Rohlin, Seraphim Richard
Paperback
History of the Baltic States: A Captivating Guide to Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania's Rich and Complex Past
History, Captivating
Hardcover
Displaced: A Family without a Country: Inspired by the life of Irena Golcvegaite
Ade, Sue Stewart
Paperback
The Baltic Story: A Thousand-Year History of Its Lands, Sea and Peoples
Boggis-Rolfe, Caroline
Paperback
If I Could Paint the Moon Black: Imbi Peebo's Wartime Journey from Estonia to America
Burke, Nancy
Paperback
Against the Deluge: Polish and Lithuanian Armies During the War Against Sweden 1655-1660
Paradowski, Michal
Paperback
A Scourge of Humanity: The Origins of Interpol and the End of Empire in Central and Eastern Europe
Petruccelli, David
Hardcover
Forest Brothers: The Account of an Anti-Soviet Lithuanian Freedom Fighter, 1944-1948
Luksa, Juozas
Paperback
The Crossing: Searching for My Baltic German Ancestry and Discovering Latvia
Maddaus, Charles
Paperback
A Towering Flame: The Life & Times of the Elusive Latvian Anarchist Peter the Painter
Ruff, Philip
Hardcover
Learn Lithuanian: English to Lithuanian Words and 1,001 Phrases for Beginners
Barney, Bailey
Paperback
The Northern Wars: War, State and Society in Northeastern Europe, 1558 - 1721
Frost, Robert I.
Paperback
Migration, Dictatorship, and Identity in Twentieth-Century Europe: Siegfried Von Vegesack and Werner Bergengruen
Housden, Martyn
Hardcover
Normalcy Never Again: Racist-Oppression and Today's Justice Movement
Van Gorder, A. Christian
Tait, Lewis T., Jr.
Paperback
Johann August Sack: Seit 1816 Oberpräsident der Provinz Pommern, des Freiherrn Karl vom Stein treuester Schüler und Freund
Von Dieckmann, Gertha
Hardcover
Air Battles Over the Baltic 1941 Volume 1: Soviet Military Aviation on the Eve of the Great Patriotic War
Timin, Mikhail
Paperback
The Great Game of Genocide: Imperialism, Nationalism, and the Destruction of the Ottoman Armenians
Bloxham, Donald
Paperback
Story about a man who wanted to die at home: Based on a true story
Čeledinas, Martynas
Paperback
Soviet Religious Policy in Estonia and Latvia: Playing Harmony in the Singing Revolution
Goeckel, Robert
Paperback
Thinking Peaceful Change: Baltic Security Policies and Security Community Building
Möller, Frank
Hardcover
Johann August Sack: Seit 1816 Oberpräsident der Provinz Pommern, des Freiherrn Karl vom Stein treuester Schüler und Freund
Von Dieckmann, Gertha
Hardcover
Air Battles Over the Baltic 1941 Volume 4: The Day of Reckoning, Afternoon Battles and Aftermath
Timin, Mikhail
Paperback
A Victor's Tale: The Story of Milo Flaten: One of the GIs Who Led the Invasion of Omaha Beach on D-Day
Westring, Doc
Paperback
How Long Is Exile?: BOOK I: The Song and Dance Festival of Free Latvians (Large Print Edition)
Barbins-Stahnke, Astrida
Paperback
How Long Is Exile?: Book II: Out of the Ruins of Germany (Large Print Edition)
Barbins-Stahnke, Astrida
Paperback
The View From First Mountain: A personal view of the Democracy Transition Program after the Croatian War of Independence
Hanne, William G.
Paperback
Storm in the Land of Rain: A Mother's Dying Wish Becomes Her Daughter's Nightmare
Foti, Silvia
Paperback
The New Theatre of the Baltics: From Soviet to Western Influence in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
Johnson, Jeff
Paperback
Roma Historical and Cultural Heritage Sites in Poland
United States Commission for the Preserv
Paperback
Battle in the Baltic: The Royal Navy and the Fight to Save Estonia and Latvia, 1918-20
Dunn, Steve R.
Hardcover
Astrakhan Anno 1770: Its History, Geography, Population, Trade, Flora, Fauna and Fisheries
Gmelin, Samuel Gottlieb
Paperback
Operation Allied Force - Volume 1: Air War Over Serbia, 1999
Dimitrijevic, Bojan
Draganic, Jovica
Paperback
Balkan Federation and Communes: Revolutionary Projects in Bulgaria of the 19th & 20th Centuries
Tarinski, Yavor
Paperback
Between Rome and Byzantium: The Golden Age of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania's Political Culture. Second Half of the Fifteenth Century to First Half of
Kiaupiene, Jūrate
Hardcover
The Lithuanian Metrica: History and Research
Ragauskiene, Raimonda
Dubonis, Artūras
Antanavičius, Darius
Hardcover
Warships in the Baltic Campaign 1918-20: The Royal Navy Takes on the Bolsheviks
Konstam, Angus
Paperback
Roosevelt, Churchill, and the Baltic Question: Allied Relations During the Second World War
Piirimäe, K.
Hardcover
The Minsk Ghetto, 1941-1943: Jewish Resistance and Soviet Internationalism
Epstein, Barbara
Hardcover
The Creation of National Spaces in a Pluricultural Region: The Case of Prussian Lithuania
Safronovas, Vasilijus
Hardcover
Roma-Gypsy Presence in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: 15th - 18th Centuries
Mróz, Lech
Hardcover
Life Should Be Transparent: Conversations about Lithuania and Europe in the Twentieth Century and Today
Svedas, Aurimas
Veisaite, Irena
Paperback
Visions of Annihilation: The Ustasha Regime and the Cultural Politics of Fascism, 1941-1945
Yeomans, Rory
Paperback
Ukrainian Witchcraft Trials: Volhynia, Podolia, and Ruthenia, 17th-18th Centuries
Dysa, Kateryna
Hardcover
Europeanizing Montenegro: The European Union, the Rule of Law, and Regional Cooperation
Vuckovic, Vladimir
Hardcover
Speak Latvian Fast: 1,200 Essential Phrases for Travelers, Beginners, and Everyday Conversations
Magri, Imen
Paperback