The afternoon felt like a real look behind the scenes. Urve shared how the cover of The Darkest Corner of the World evolved to a portrait of her young mother and gave us a glimpse into what’s coming next in her sequel. Kaili, who wrote Eha’s Great Escape: Estonia 1944, talked about the creative choices in her imagery, drawing on her grandmother’s likeness to capture the feeling of her 17-year-old journey. She reflected on the questions she never asked her 'vanaema Eha,' and how shocked her grandmother would be to know she had become the subject of a picture book – seeing the gentle mother she knew now portrayed in Estonian schools as the brave teenager who escaped the Soviet invasion.
It was especially moving to have Juta in the audience, an Eesti Kodu resident. At 95, she reminded us that this history is very much alive – she was 11 when she escaped with her family, eventually arriving in Canada on the Walnut. Her presence was a powerful reminder that these narratives are not just books, ‘ancient’ history, but vital links to our shared past and the events unfolding in real time now.
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