Buchvorstellung Inga Gaile: der Geschmack von schwarzer Erde

Poetic and profound. Contemporary literature from Latvia in its first German translation.

Their fates are a reflection of the 20th century: Violette Dauphine is interned as a "political prisoner" in the Ravensbrück concentration camp and selected for a terrible job. The camp doctor Karlis, a psychologist from Latvia, who is barely able to defend himself against the inhumanity - and does not return to his homeland, is not innocent. The Latvian women Lidija and Ilze are deported to Siberia, while others escape this fate. They meet again in Soviet Latvia. All their lives are connected: through relationships, children or the circumstances in which they live.

Inga Gaile interweaves the life stories of these people across national borders and generations. "The Taste of Black Earth" shows the traumas that the Second World War left behind for generations, regardless of nation or social status.

Inga Gaile on her novel: "I have tried to write a novel about people who are able to preserve their humanity in situations and circumstances in which it has no place."