Jurga Vile

A gripping read! When I was in school, I learned a little about Polish people being deported to Siberia during World War II, but didn’t know that the Lithuanians were deported as well. I have a friend who grew up in Latvia, and knowing that her family may have been affected in a similar way is sobering.

This is a gut-wrenching story, and the illustrations well-done are engaging. I found the font a little difficult to read, but once I got used to it, it wasn’t too bad. This is a story I doubt I’ll ever forget. I did struggle with the frequent mentions of ghosts—it seemed to be the main character’s coping strategy, but I still didn’t like that aspect.

Overall, though, this book is an excellent way to get to know history you might not find elsewhere, and I’d highly recommend you pick it up, even if it is a sad, difficult story for the most part.

I was given a complimentary copy of this book, and this is my honest opinion of it.… (mer)

Lithuanian Exile
Review of the SelfMadeHero hardcover edition (March 2020) translated by Jura Avizienis from the Lithuanian language original "Sibiro haiku" (2017)

[This is probably a biased 5, due to my own family heritage. Possibly a 4 for others]
The June 1941 Deportations and associated massacres in the Baltic and Eastern European countries became a harbinger of what to expect from the Russian occupiers when they swept back in at the end of World War II. Stalin's forces had initially occupied the Baltic and Eastern Poland as part of the Molotov/Ribbentrop Pact (1939) where the two totalitarian regimes had carved up the countries of Eastern Europe. Hitler's attack in late 1941 caused a temporary retreat for the Russians.

The Russians were not seen as 'liberators' but rather as simply an alternative 'Red terror' replacing the 'Nazi terror.' This caused a surge of refugees to escape to the West to find new homes in countries as far away as Australia, Canada and the USA. Such was the background to my own family's history which led them from a refugee camp in the British Zone to England and finally to Canada.

The background of this diaspora has been depicted in both fiction and nonfiction through novels & memoirs and movie features and documentaries by many authors and filmmakers from those countries, but never before in a graphic novel such as Jurga Vilė's Siberian Haiku. Vilė tells the story of her father Algis and how his family had been swept up in the June Deportation and sent off to Siberia. They were separated from her grandfather who subsequently died in a Russian work camp. Algis and his grandmother, mother and sister are resettled in proximity to a Japanese camp (there is not a lot of detail about the Japanese aspect here, but possibly these are later prisoners of war after Russia joined the Allies to fight the Germany-Italy-Japan Axis).

Vilė crafts her family's story through children's eyes which provides a lighter sheen to a tale which could otherwise be quite horrific and depressing. Even in the reduced circumstances of exile, the children survive through their games and fantasies while being protected and supported by their elders. A camp children's choir is formed and one auntie's familiarity with Japanese poetry becomes an inspiration to send messages to fellow prisoners and in imaginary communications to the outside world.

Lina Itagaki's entertaining and creative illustrations effectively assist in telling this story of endurance and survival. Jura Avizienis' translation into English was just as well done.

See illustration at https://thamesandhudson.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/9781910593776.in03-416...
Sample 2-page excerpt from Siberian Haiku showing Lithuanian children casting Japanese poetry to the Japanese prisoners held over the wall. Image sourced from Thames & Hudson Australia.… (mer)