Part history, part autobiography, Walking Since Daybreak tells the tragic story of the Baltic nations before, during, and after World War II. Personal stories of the survival or destruction of Modris Eksteins's family members lend an intimate dimension to this vast narrative of those millions who have surged back and forth across the lowlands bordering the Baltic Sea. The immense cataclysm of World War II devastated the Baltic republics of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, sending many of their inhabitants to the ends of the earth.

Kalniete's book is a moving and eloquent testimony to her family and to the Latvian nation—to their shared fate during more than fifty years of occupation. It is an indictment of the inhuman repression of both the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Above all, it is the story of human survival, and it has become the most-translated Latvian book in recent history. (From description on publisher’s web site.)

Every story has a beginning, a journey, and an end. Author Vera Leinvebers’s story begins in her beloved homeland of Latvia, just prior to the outbreak of World War II. Her early childhood is filled with joy and music, but this idyllic, carefree existence is irrevocably silenced by the advancing drumbeats of war. The journey that follows proves so intense and harrowing that in order to find the emotional separation necessary to face her traumatic childhood memories, Leinvebers filters her experiences through the eyes of a young Latvian girl called Lara.