RaveWorld Literature TodayEva Menasse’s spellbinding writing draws us into the heads of the Darkenbloomers and into the heart of village life ... Like a good thriller, the seemingly innocuous clues are drip-fed to the reader through her wonderfully rounded characters who are faced with the revelation of the truth when journalists arrive in the village ... Astute characterizations ... A gripping investigation of guilt, collective memory, and revelation, and each of Eva Menasse’s carefully crafted sentences, in Charlotte Collin’s sensitive translation, is worth dwelling upon, for they stay with you, long after you have finished the book.
Nora Ikstena, Trans. by Margita Gailitis
RaveWorld Literature TodayEvery so often, you come across a book so beautiful that you ration the pages to extend it. Nora Ikstena’s Soviet Milk is most certainly one of these ... The atmospheric narrative infused with evocative imagery reflects both the physical state of Latvia under Soviet rule and the mental states of the protagonists ... Nora Ikstena’s autofictional tale, courtesy of Magita Gailitis’s smooth and sensitive translation, allows us into the minds of two women for whom we feel an almost instant empathy and who will remain with us for a long time.
