Soviet Milk - Nora Ikstena

Spanning fifty years in the life of a nation, from the end of World War Two to the fall of the Berlin Wall, Soviet Milk gives voice to a Latvian mother and daughter swept up in the tide of history. The mother, a gifted fertility specialist, is exiled to a rural village after defending a patient from abuse by a Soviet officer. Stripped of her career, she sinks into depression. Her daughter grows up with her grandparents, struggling with her mother’s distance and the pressure of a society that leaves little room for autonomy.

Finding hope in poetry and her dreams of a better future, the daughter moves towards both personal and national liberation, even as her mother slips further into despair.

This is the story of three generations of women marked by Soviet rule and the love between a mother and daughter.