Stephanie Jane reviewed In the Shadow of Wolves by Alvydas Slepikas
Evocative, vivid and horrifying
5 stars
In The Shadow Of Wolves by Alvydas Slepikas is newly published in an English translation and I was very impressed with Romas Kinka's work in preserving the Slepikas' stark prose. In common with How We Disappeared it brings to light a forgotten aspect of World World War Two, in this case the plight of destitute German women and children forcibly evicted by resettling Russian soldiers and civilians. I was intrigued by eerily similar scenes to those I recently encountered in The Hare With Amber Eyes depicting people being forced from their homes purely on account of their ancestry. There Germans perceived starving Jews as little more than animals; here, just a few years later, Russians talk of starving Germans in identical terms.
I feel that In The Shadow Of Wolves is an important novel to read and talk about even though the actuality of reading it is not a pleasant …
In The Shadow Of Wolves by Alvydas Slepikas is newly published in an English translation and I was very impressed with Romas Kinka's work in preserving the Slepikas' stark prose. In common with How We Disappeared it brings to light a forgotten aspect of World World War Two, in this case the plight of destitute German women and children forcibly evicted by resettling Russian soldiers and civilians. I was intrigued by eerily similar scenes to those I recently encountered in The Hare With Amber Eyes depicting people being forced from their homes purely on account of their ancestry. There Germans perceived starving Jews as little more than animals; here, just a few years later, Russians talk of starving Germans in identical terms.
I feel that In The Shadow Of Wolves is an important novel to read and talk about even though the actuality of reading it is not a pleasant experience. Don't get me wrong - I loved the evocative writing and vivid portrayals of people and place, but that clarity of description is extremely difficult to bear. An East Prussian winter is bitterly cold, even more so when one's home is a woodshed and 'meals' more often than not are boiled water, perhaps with raspberry stalks for a little flavour. The chill emanates from every page.
There were frozen corpses along the side of the road and, at a little distance from the road people were sitting on logs. The children asked: 'Why are they doing that, what are they waiting for?' Lotte explained. 'They're dead, they couldn't walk anymore, they sat down and froze.'
That quote was one of the most shocking moments for me. Not so much that people had simply sat down knowing they would die as a result, but that those still walking past could be so matter-of-fact about it. This horror has become normality. That anyone could have survived these years is astonishing, yet this novel incorporates the memories of some of these wolf children whom Slepikas talked to. In The Shadow Of Wolves is a timely literary reminder of just how easily everything can be lost when intolerance is allowed to thrive.