The “An Island at Sea” tetralogy is being published by Samokat for the first time—not for the first time, however, but it’s already been coming out from the publisher “Самокат.”
It is a very calm, cool-in-a-Scandinavian-way, and realistic-in-a-Scandinavian-way story about two refugee sisters from Austria—Jewish girls Steffi and Nelly. From elegant, musical, noisy Vienna, the Steiner sisters are forced to leave for cold, restrained Sweden, because World War II begins, Austria is occupied by the Germans, and for Jews the worst times are coming.
It no longer matters that their father is a successful doctor and their mother is a former opera singer; that Steffi studies well and dreams of becoming a doctor like her father, while Nelly has her mother’s voice and takes piano lessons. Only their nationality matters—because now they are being killed for it. And since their parents can’t save themselves, they send the girls to a safe country that observes neutrality in wartime.
Is neutrality good or bad? Why did Sweden agree to accept only child refugees, but shut the border to adult Jews doomed to be destroyed? Why does a phrase thrown by one of the Swedes—“Do they put people in jail just like that?”—express the silent opinion of most people? These and other questions the author raises in this soulful, life-affirming book.
CONTENT:
Book 1 — An Island at Ocean — read by Irina Vorobyeva
Book 2 — The Pond of White Lilies — read by Leontina Brotskaya
Book 3 — The Depth of the Sea — read by Vyacheslav Gerasimov
Book 4 — Open Sea — read by Maria Abalkina