The Seven Lives of A Poet is more than just a melodramatic literary device. The life of Rainis, Latvia’s preeminent poet, dramatist, statesman and thinker evolved in such a way that on numerous occasions his literary and political work brought him to the brink of almost total collapse,
after which he was forced time and time again to start his life over. There was no need for him to wait for or invent complexities in his life – it was as if the plot for a story of epic proportions was laid out right before him. It was a case where fact was indeed stranger than fiction. The focus of the novel rests on the lives of people who had a profound influence on the 20th century, as the reader is taken up in a whirlwind of dramatic events that changed the course of history.

Contacts: izdevnieciba@jumava.lv 

The novel Magnus, the Danish Prince is an account of the Livonian War that took place in the second half of the XVI century. It was a complicated and tragic period in history and one that defined the fate of the Baltic region, North West Europe and Russia for the centuries to follow. The author has chosen an untraditionally free and innovative form of writing allowing him to combine the historical facts, taken from old chronicles – testimonials of German, Latvian and Russian historians, with the lives and destinies of his fictional characters. He succeeds in blending both light-hearted, amusing episodes and real drama with undisputed historical records. This untraditional revisiting of the first and last King of Livonia – Magnus – resonates directly with the most current issues of modern life, thus through his exploration of a remote past, R. Dobrovenskij has written a book of relevance today.

Contact: izdevnieciba@jumava.lv www.jumava.lv