Sparrow in the Snow

by sylvia-darel

English, Russian (translation)

Genres: Nonfiction, History

216 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

Reviews

[Ginny · Rating 4 out of 5]

My goodness! So then what happened? How and where does she survive and grow old?
This is an amazing, yet disturbing, story about a Jewish girl from Riga, Latvia who, along with her family, were exiled to Siberia after the Soviet occupation in 1940. It’s an important book because it tells of what a socialist regime really does to a country and its people. Socialism will always result in starvation, deprivation, and death for the populace. Socialism can never be done “right” because that’s just not how economics works; you cannot manipulate it to give you a desirable result. Only free people can prosper.
It’s still mind boggling that anyone survived that era, among many similar others.
My sister stumbled upon this first edition, signed by the author, and we both cherish it!

[Ene Sepp · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read several books about deportation from Estonians viewpoint and I have always found them interesting. So I was very intrigued to read the same story from our neighboring nation: Latvia. Lets be honest, the story is overall the same. For some random reason, soldiers showed up to your house, told you to pack your things and took you to trains that took you to Siberia where you had to start your life all over again - somehow.

It certainly wasn't the best book about the deportation (and aftermath) that I've read, but it does give quite a good glimpse into the historical background that has hurt so many families in several countries.

[Dena · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very interesting autobiography and memoir, which was translated about a young girl and her (Jewish) family exiled from Latvia to Siberia. Her father was arrested and her mother held in a work/camp/collective/settlement -- but when she was a teenager she made a break for it. First to Moscow and then Leningrad. As a former exile, she was able to keep her identity secret, attend a technical institute and fall in love before being arrested. She actually was sent back to her mother/work camp/collective. Many of the stories are harrowing of political prisoners vs. regular prisoners and treatment of people all around, bribery, rigging the system, etc. Wish I had read this book for my Soviet Politics class back in the late 1980's back in college. The book flap says she was a broadcaster in London but my online searches have yielded no other information about her.
This book was rescued from a book weeding/dump 5//12/16 from the dumpsters at my local public library.

[Sam Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

The front cover blurb on my old Penguin copy says, 'A Russian Diary of Anne Frank without the tragic ending ending.' Which is very misleading. For a start it's not a diary, nor is she like Anne Frank hidden away. As a young girl she is transported to Siberia because of her father's profession. So far as anyone in the family can make out. Because, she thinks, they're Jewish the whole family remain persona non grata. They're also Estonian. Starved, maltreated, thrown in with other 'politicals', no-one quite sure what crime they have committed, it's brutally Kafkaesque. Survival is their victory. Although translated it is obvious that Silvia Darrel is not a natural writer.

[Daisy]

I chose this book from a Sylva Darel quote at the beginning of The Commissar Vanishes: The Falsification of Photographs and Art in Stalin's Russia. It says: We loved dipping our fingers in the inkwell filled with diluted soot and were sometimes overzealous. I once inked out Comrade Kaganovich himself because his name sounded like an exiled one to me. I was lucky i was only eleven years old.
So who is Sylva Darel?