Divas Almas

In the life of the little girl Alma, there is no strict line drawn between reality and imagination, as is the case with many children. Therefore, when she spends her summer in the countryside, next to a small village cemetery, where funerals are held every now and then, it is not difficult for her to apply to herself the words heard over the grave fence: “Our Alma is dead. We will not see each other again!” and to imagine herself as deceased. Alma tries to understand the difference between the living and the dead, the relationship of a person with their name, the meaning of various expressions related to death and memory. The author writes about these existential matters with light humor, in which seriousness and a smile are inseparable from each other.

In the illustrations of the book “Two Almas” by the observant, emotional artist Anete Bajāre-Babčukas, she is able to connect two worlds – the visible, detailed everyday world, the magnificent summer nature, and the “invisible”, in which memories and stories continue to live even after a person’s death. She has managed to show how the girl’s imagination reveals the closeness and unity of these worlds, the fluid border.