Includes bibliographical references (pages 279-282).

"A haunting, luminous reckoning with exile and loss. Raised by her Latvian grandparents in Washington State, Inara Verzemnieks grew up among expatriates, scattering smuggled Latvian sand over the coffins of the dead, singing folk songs with other children about a land none of them had visited. Her grandmother's stories re-created in vivid, nostalgic detail the family farm she'd left behind in a borderland violently contested during the Second World War. In the fighting, her grandmother Livija and her grandmother's sister, Ausma, were separated and would not see each other again for more than fifty years. Journeying back to the remote village where her family broke apart, Inara comes to know Ausma and the trauma of her exile to Siberia under Stalin, while reconstructing Livija's survival through her years as a refugee. In bringing together these two sides of the family story, Inara honors both sisters in a deeply cathartic and moving account of loss, survival, resilience, and love."--Provided by publisher.