Banished from the Homeland

By Crissa Constantine

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1585010197
• ISBN13: 9781585010196
• Release Date: October 2000
• Publisher: Ceshore Pub Co
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 0.8" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

sonya's triumph

This is a story about a young Estonian woman called Sonya coming of age during the Stalinist holocaust (starting in the Second World War and continuing for 50 years afterwards) against the once proud and free states of the Baltic, about her heart-wrenching sadness at being forced to leave her happy, strong and loving family, her numerous friends, and the beautiful country she called her home. It is also a travel diary of Sonya's flight, through strange lands, at the mercy of sometimes helpful and sometimes indifferent people. In her own remarkable way, the author has captured the spirit of these places in their natural and sensual beauty, painting the landscapes in vivid colors, smells and textures. I have never been to Estonia or Greece but on reading these pages, I can almost touch the beauty of the landscapes and their stoical people, in contrast against the drab timelines of history. Through it all, Sonya never abandons her hopes of being reunited with her Estonian family, even after she builds a family of her own with an eccentric and passionate Greek doctor and has to face the Byzantine ways of his relatives. For anyone who has lost sight of their homeland, this is a story that will warm your heart. This is about history as it happens, unfiltered through news reports or history books, a personal account of how a defiant and loving woman endures the suffering and losses of a lifetime to triumph, at long last, in her country's freedom.