'Nora Ikstena's fiction opens up new paths not only for Latvian literature in English translation but for English literature itself. To order a copy for 10.20, go to or call 03. 'Nora Ikstena is proving that Latvia is speaking in a bold and original voice.' Rosie Goldsmith, broadcaster and reviewer Soviet Milk by Nora Ikstena, translated by Margita Gailitis (Peirene, 12). Yet just beneath the surface lies something far more positive: the story of three generations of women, and the importance of a grandmother giving her granddaughter what her daughter is unable to provide – love, and the desire for life. The novel has now been published in Macedonia, Hungary, Italy and Great Britain. Will she and her daughter be able to return to Riga when political change begins to stir?Īt first glance this novel depicts a troubled mother-daughter relationship set in the the Soviet-ruled Baltics between 19. Nora Ikstena’s Soviet Milk (Mtes piens), a novel praised and admired by readers and critics in Latvia, is now available to increasingly larger audiences beyond the borders of Latvia. Banished to a village in the Latvian countryside, her sense of isolation increases. She is deprived first of her professional future, then of her identity and finally of her relationship with her daughter. The central character in the story tries to follow her calling as a doctor. Nora Ikstena's novel has been beautifully translated by Margita Gailitis although there is some question about whether it was somewhat abridged. This novel considers the effects of Soviet rule on a single individual. This is a modern masterpiece, which will fascinate the reader with its picture of Latvia's Soviet era through a lens focused on three generations of a family and their troubles and hopes. Soviet Milk has been translated and published in more than 20 countries. The literary bestseller that took the Baltics by storm now published for the first time in English. The story is based on the bestseller Soviet Milk by the renown Latvian novelist Nora Ikstena.