Biruta BlumbergaBiruta Blumberga is a Latvian writer whose family's farm was a battlefield during World War II. In 1949 her father and grandmother were deported to Siberia. She survived in Latvia with her mother and siblings, living a life behind the Iron Curtain - life filled with cruelty, poverty, repression, and uncertainty. Blumberga worked tirelessly through five decades of Soviet oppression; managing to feed her family and keep them safe. This short novel echoes the fears and poignancy of those times, as does "Biruta's Garden of Stories", which she released in 2013. Blumberga now lives in a small town outside of Riga. Read More Read Less