Arno Jungze “I will never die” novel about Eduard Weidenbaum Series “I am…” | Press release

July 7, 2022.

The information was prepared by Ieva Grabe, Marketing Specialist of SIA “Dienas Grūmata”.

The work of the “I am…” series has been published – Arno Jundze’s novel “I will never die” – about the Latvian poet, translator and publicist Eduard Veidenbaum (1867-1892).

“Arno Jundze’s novel documents the last month and a half of Weidenbaum’s life, but covers his entire life, allowing to emerge from the depths of literary history not a poster image, but a personality pulsating in contradictions, driven by the drive: “I would like to write something better, more significant, so that no one could say – that idleness of the Weidenbaums is no longer useful or worth anything.””

Gundega Blumberg

“That year, spring is sad. At the moment when it finally blooms and the “meadows are decorated with flowers”, the country of shadows enters it. In the fate of Eduard, the prodigy of the farm, the story of the outbreak and rapid combustion is not original, nor is it the story of underestimating one’s talent, the desire to burn what was written and fame that comes only after death. But the fact that in 2022 Weidenbaum’s small literary legacy continues to be read, quoted and sung more than a century after his death, shows something that will not pass away. Arno Jungze also tried to access this in his version of the poet’s insanely short life lifetime.”

Vent Star

The literary activity of the writer Arno Jundze (1965) is multifaceted: literary scholar, cultural journalist, prose writer, who freely feels in different forms and genres. Author of ten books, the first of which is the scientific monograph “Finnish literature in Latvia. 1885-2001” (2002). Four novels have been published in two decades, including the suspense novel about Latvia in the 1990s “Red Mercury” (2017) in the series “We. Latvia, XX century” and the crime novel “The Last Witness” (2021), as well as a collection of stories and books for children. The books have been nominated several times for various cultural awards, including the Latvian Literature of the Year Award, the works have been translated into Lithuanian, Spanish, English and Estonian.

The book was made with the support of the State Cultural Capital Fund

The artist of the book is Jānis Esītis

Hardcover volume, 208 pages, published on July 7, 2022

About the project “I am…”

In 2018, the publishing house “Dienas Krūta” started work on a new Latvian literary major project “I am…”. In the new series, a total of 26 new works are planned: 13 novels and 13 monographs about the classics of Latvian literature. About people whose works and thoughts, each in their own way, both visibly and unconsciously, shaped us today in one way or another. The same “we” who live in the novels of the series “Més. Latvija, XX Gadsimts”, which made a significant contribution to the cultural field of modern Latvia and national self-awareness, where the writers focused on the spirit of the times, historical events and their traces in a different style.

The new project “I am…” foresees the continuation of the series “We. Latvia, 20th century”, constantly activating social memory, historical awareness, its research and understanding, focusing on the essence of personality, individual choices, intellectual responsibility.

Aspazija, Anna Brigadere, Anšlavs Eglītis, Jānis Ezeriņš, Gunars Janovskis, Ivande Kaija, Vilis Lācis, Jānis Poruks, Kārlis Skalbe, Ilze Šķipsna, Andrejs Upīts, Eduard Veidenbaums, Jānis Ziemieknieks. Some of these 13 writers, poets and dramatists, so important to literature and cultural history, have been undeservedly forgotten, some others have been canonized and have lost the contours of a living creative personality. However, even more important is the clear variety of these classics, the diametrical differences from one to the other, as well as the demonstration of the mutual mirror images of the individual and the society, in which we can also see today’s processes very well.

The project “I am…” is implemented with the support of the State Cultural Capital Fund. Authors of novels and monographs are writers Inga Ābele, Andris Akmentiņš, Guntis Berelis, Māris Bērziņš, Inga Gaile, Ilze Jansone, Arno Jundze, Laima Kota, Sven Kuzmins, Gundega Repše, Osvalds Zebris, Andris Zeibots, Inga Žolude and literary scholars Maija Burima, Inguna Daukste-Silasproģe, Gundega Grīnuma, Māra Grudule, Ieva Kalniņa, Arnis Koroševskis, Sigita Kushner, Anita Rožkalne, Olga Senkāne, Lita Silova, Ieva Struka, Viesturs Vecgrāvis, Jānis Zālītis. The author and initiator of the project “I am…” is writer and art historian Gundega Repše.

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