Anita Spigulis-DeSnyder
ALLi Author Member
Location: United States of America
Genres: Memoir, Children's fiction, Historical Fiction, Short/Flash Fiction Collection
Anita Spigulis-DeSnyder is a life-long participant in Latvian cultural activities. She graduated from Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, with a bachelor's degree in English Literature, and received her master's degree from Framingham State University. She worked at Berkley/Jove/Putnam Books, Hill Holliday, Newsweek, and as a special education teacher. She currently resides in New Hampshire where she spends her time writing or pursuing outdoor activities. Simplified Choices: A Family Memoir of Latvia, World War II and Identity is her first book. She is currently working on a novel.
Anita Spigulis-DeSnyder's books
Genres: History, Memoir
Formats: E-Book, Paperback
Age Groups: 18+
"Simplified Choices: A Family Memoir of Latvia, World War II and Identity" tells the powerful story of a family caught between the Nazis and the Soviets during one of history's darkest periods. Anita Spigulis-DeSnyder, the daughter of Latvian refugees, grew up in the United States, steeped in her parents' stories of their homeland—of resisting the Soviet invasion, surviving the Displaced Persons camps, and building a new life in America. Proud of her Latvian roots, she never questioned the history she knew. That all changed during a chance conversation with an Israeli student on a train. Words like Holocaust and Nazis—words she never connected to Latvia—sparked unsettling questions about her family's past. When she asked her father if Latvians had fought with the Nazis, his reply, "When someone points a gun at your head, it simplifies your choices," revealed a more complex truth. In this moving memoir, Spigulis-DeSnyder explores the difficult...