Alvas kliedziens by Gundega Repse (2002)

I wasn't going to list Latvian books in this blog, but I felt I had to list two that I read during Christmas break. The title of this translates as The Tin Scream - a sound made by tin when bent. I am looking for current Latvian fiction to use in teaching about life in Latvia under Soviets and in the era of new independence. I understand that Repse has based this book on her actual diaries from the time she was eleven to sixteen. Much of it reflects normal childhood ups and downs, but her story is full of small details that differ from our childhoods in the U.S. As she gets older, she has a harder time conforming to what is expected of a good soviet student, and with troubles at home, she starts acting out, which is interpreted as mental illness and she is drugged and eventually hospitalized. The normal childhood story gets quite intense. The book would have to be excerpted very selectively, but it has some important scenes like when some students decide to attend church on Christmas eve, and as they come out of the church, a teacher is writing down their names and they are later called in for interrogations. (Definitely more than just a plain discussion.) I don't think our children understand what it was like under the Soviets.