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Lace Weaver Lauren Chater 9781925596335 Books

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Lace Weaver Lauren Chater 9781925596335 Books

I wasn’t sure about this book to start wth. It seemed to took a while for me to understand the two girls lives and how they would come together. It’s a sad story of a country being destroyed by super powers. I need to do some homework on what it is like today. Terrible history of genocide with no consequence. So glad I live on the other side of the world.


Tags : Lace Weaver [Lauren Chater] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers.,Lauren Chater,Lace Weaver,Simon & Schuster Australia,1925596338,Fiction Historical,General & Literary Fiction,Historical fiction,Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

Lace Weaver Lauren Chater 9781925596335 Books Reviews

In 1941, Estonia is being crushed by the Soviet Army. Katarina and her family have survived because the produce their farm produces is needed by the Soviets. The women have been able to save enough wool to continue knitting shawls. These shawls are intricate pieces of work. They are fine enough to pass through a gold wedding ring, knitted in intricate patterns passed down through the generations.

At the same time, in Moscow, Lydia prepares to escape to Estonia in search of her mother’s heritage. Her mother is dead, and Lydia has only two things that belonged to her an old lace shawl and a tattered book.

This novel is about so many aspects of life, including love, tradition, tragedy and war. Ms Chater depicts the struggles of the Estonians as they first endure occupation by the Soviets and then by the Germans. Partisans, surviving in the forest, battle for their homeland. There is danger everywhere. Will Lydia and Katarina, and their companions survive?

‘Safe. There was no meaning in that word. It was an empty promise.’

I won’t write more about the story (I’m trying hard to avoid any spoilers). I liked the way in which Ms Chater wrote her story around the successive invasions of Estonia during World War II. The history supports the fiction without overpowering it. I could easily envisage the women knitting together, sharing their knowledge, unpicking and then reknitting the wool when no new wool was available. There’s a strength here, in sharing this tradition, a continuity in common purpose.

Note My thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster (Australia) for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith
The Lace Weaver is the first novel by Australian author, Lauren Chater. In mid-1941, the hard-won independence of Estonia (and the other Baltic states) was no more the Red Army occupied the countries, installing pro-Soviet governments, although they put it this way “the Baltics have always belonged to Russia. She has just welcomed them back to the fold.”

On their farm near Tartu, Katarina Rebane and her parents work hard to survive, tending sheep and growing apples. Much had been lost in the preceding years Kati’s beloved grandmother Elina had died; her best friend Oskar Magi had fled after being accused of murdering his family; her brother, Jakob attends University in town, seldom returning home.

At least she still has her knitting group, where the important Estonian tradition of creating lace shawls, to be sold at the flea markets, is continued. But now, the Partorg (party organiser) in Tartu has directed that all their wool be handed over to the state not even the meagre amount used for shawls can be retained. Will their tradition die?

Partorg at Tartu, Piotr Volkov has just received word that another round of mass deportations is to be enforced, when his daughter, Lydia turns up from Moscow. Reeling from the arrest of her beau, Joachim, and revelations about her mother’s death, Lydia has decided to console herself with a visit to her father, there in her mother’s homeland. But more shocking revelations are to come.

Within days, both Kati and Lydia are with other refugees in a forest camp under the protection of a partisan group, the Forest Brothers, while Oskar and Jakob have put on brown uniforms and are fighting the Russian soldiers. The partisan groups are pinning all their hopes on the Germans, confident that the Nazis will oust the Russians and return the Estonian government to power.

In an evocative historical novel, Chater blends fact and fiction to draw attention to the losses that war can precipitate not just life and limb, but also the precious legacy of traditional arts and crafts that epitomise a nation. It’s easy to imagine how these groups of women knitting shawls and chatting would bring calm in troubled times. Chater also demonstrates how, even during war and flight from persecution, life with all it’s small joys and petty jealousies, goes on.

Chater’s extensive research on all matters Estonian and shawl-related is apparent on every page. She provides information in her acknowledgements on suggested further reading, although a link to images of the shawls, or even an illustration of some patterns would have been welcome. A moving debut novel.
I found this book had no substance to it
Interesting well told story. It has made me read up on Estonian history.
A great story rich with history and perseverance. Strong women brought together through war and adversity. Survival and love driving them to find a peaceful life bound by the beautiful art of knitting lace shawls a craft still practiced today in Estonia.
I wasn’t sure about this book to start wth. It seemed to took a while for me to understand the two girls lives and how they would come together. It’s a sad story of a country being destroyed by super powers. I need to do some homework on what it is like today. Terrible history of genocide with no consequence. So glad I live on the other side of the world.