by Ella Zeiss
‘It’s from Papa. Natalya has forwarded a letter to us. He’s free!’ Mutter whispered. Tears of joy filled her eyes and she rubbed them quickly away. ‘He’s been discharged and acquitted,’ she repeated, overcome with joy.
Emma threw herself jubilantly into her arms.
‘When is the letter dated?’ Harri wanted to know. He too was overwhelmed with relief.
‘The 20th of November. He says he was resettled in Kazakhstan the moment he was set free.’ She laughed brightly. ‘He’s living near Akmolinsk, working as an accountant in a kolkhoz. He’s going to ask for permission to be relocated here.’ She lowered the letter and hugged her children. ‘We’re all going to be together again!’
GLOSSARY
Babulya: Grandma
fufaika: quilted wadded jacket to keep out the cold, typically in mouse-grey
Grossmutter: Grandmother
Grossvater: Grandfather
GUGB: Soviet secret police, 1934–1941
kapusta: pickled red cabbage
kolkhoz: an agricultural collective farm that is jointly owned and managed by its members
kulak: literally ‘fist’, a derogatory Soviet term for farmers or persons owning property and seen as being wealthy
Mutter: Mother
Mutti: Mummy
OGPU: Soviet secret police, 1923–1934
Oma: Grandma
Onkel: Uncle
piroshki: Russian puff pastries
sovkhoz: a state-owned agricultural enterprise
streuselkuchen: a yeast-based German cake with a crumble topping
Tante: Aunt, Auntie
Trotskyist: a follower of the ideas of Leon Trotsky (1879–1940), a founding member of the Communist Party, who fell out with Stalin and was exiled
Uroma: Great-grandma
ushanka: hat with earflaps, typically in mouse-grey
Vater: Father
A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO RUSSIAN PATRONYMICS
In the Russian language, a person’s full name includes three parts: the first name, the patronym and the surname. The name of the father (the patronym) is given an ending corresponding to the sex of the child. A polite salutation usually consists of the first name and the patronym.
For example: Anna Friedrichovna Scholz. Friedrichovna is derived from the name of her father, Friedrich. If Anna had a brother, his name would be, for instance, Anton Friedrichovich.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ella Zeiss was born in 1980 in Alma-Ata (now Almaty), Kazakhstan. At the age of ten, she resettled in the Federal Republic of Germany with her parents and grandparents. After graduating from high school, she studied business administration and international management at the University of Münster and the Copenhagen Business School and then worked in business for several years.
The author currently lives with her husband and two daughters near Cologne, where she works as a full-time writer. So far she has published twenty-four novels in various genres. Her grandparents’ stories about the prewar period, the forced labour camps and the ensuing years of hardship have accompanied Ella Zeiss all her life, and at last she has turned them into a novel.
The author also writes romantic and adventure fantasy under the pseudonym Elvira Zeissler, as well as humorous romantic novels under the name of Ellen McCoy. For further information, please visit her website, www.elvirazeissler.de.
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
Photo © 2017 M. Bussas
Helen MacCormac grew up in the south of England, studied German language and literature in London and Berlin, and moved to Munich just after the Wall came down. She lives in Kassel, where she works as a translator and organises literary events for people who love books.