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Chapters (14)
  1. ESSENTIAL TRANSLATIONS SERIES 11
  2. Contents
  3. The Orange
  4. Still Life with Death
  5. Amaryllii
  6. The Son
  7. Naģe
  8. The Shame of Gaveiki
  9. Elza Kuga’s Old Age Dementia
  10. The White Handkerchief
  11. Notes
  12. About The Author
  13. About The Translator
  14. About Nora Ikstena’s Writing

About Nora Ikstena’s Writing

[R]eading of the short novel A Celebration of Life by Nora Ikstena is an aesthetical experience … The title would make one expect a depiction of life affirming life … however the emotion of the novel is serious, aching – strangely surreal and beautifully rich … At the start of the book, Eleonora has just died and in accordance with her wishes, seven people unfamiliar to her daughter have been invited to the funeral. After the ceremony, the small party gathers in Eleonora’s house and over the course of the night, each one describes their connection and links to the deceased. The stories resemble dreams, they are surreal; there is a desire to call them romantic as the tone of the text and the fine, perfect composition reminds of Karen Blixen … – Christa Leve Poulsen, Børsen, Denmark

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With each new literary work, Nora Ikstena creates a world more thoughtful and emotional, revealing a soul of greater scope, yet more concentration. Compared to her previous work, the message delivered in this text [Life Stories] has become seemingly simpler, but precisely because of this it reaches the boundary of the impossible and the indescribable. A contained style combined with the multiple interpretations possible of the text so characteristic of the author’s work, cannot fail but convinces the reader, not allowing for loss of attention. – Eva Mārtuža, journalist, Latvijas avīze

***

And she [Nora Ikstena] continues to exceed herself. If you are missing something in your day-to-day life, then [Life Stories] is the reading material for you. Here literature achieves such wondrous poetic perfection, that after the mud carried in by spring flooding souls, you can finally draw breath in relief – once more art lives. – Edvīns Raups, poet and journalist, Kultūras Forums

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[Life Stories] is an apple orchard. With lovely, sweet fruit, which suddenly, like a fist, punches you in the face. – Jānis Rokpelnis, poet

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The publication of this work was supported by a grant from the Latvian Literature Centre and State Culture Capital Foundation.

Copyright © 2004, Nora Ikstena and Apgāds “Atēna” SIA Original title: Dzīves stāsti

Copyright © 2012, Margita Gailitis and Guernica Editions Inc. All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication, reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise stored in a retrieval system, without the prior consent of the publisher is an infringement of the copyright law.

Michael Mirolla, editor

Guernica Editions Inc.

P.O. Box 117, Station P, Toronto (ON), Canada M5S 2S6

2250 Military Road, Tonawanda, N.Y. 14150-6000 U.S.A.

Distributors:

University of Toronto Press Distribution,

5201 Dufferin Street, Toronto (ON), Canada M3H 5T8

Gazelle Book Services, White Cross Mills, High Town, Lancaster LA1 4XS

U.K.

Small Press Distribution, 1341 Seventh St., Berkeley, CA 94710-1409 U.S.A.

First edition. Printed in Canada.

Legal Deposit – Third Quarter

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2012944763

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Ikstena, Nora