Under changing flags, through burning streets: A journey of two souls, distinct yet bound together against the backdrop of a nation’s unmaking
Those Who Fled is historical fiction full of resonant grace, prose so immersive you can feel the ashes on your skin and hear the gunfire. The characters show how ordinary people can falter into complicity even as they try to be good.
The story follows Greta, a 21-year-old student whose quiet life changes when World War II reaches Latvia and pulls it between Nazi and Soviet control. Prior to the war, Greta is a gilded bird, drifting between the finest cafés and lecture halls, her days shaped by books, debates, and the gentle privileges of a sheltered life. Her first brush with violence is witnessing a Jewish student being beaten for refusing to wear the Star of David outside her university. As these acts of brutality escalate across the city, Greta’s parents, fearful for her safety and shaken by the growing chaos, send her to the family farm in Jelgava.
There, she meets a farmhand named Tomass. Their initial reunion is short-lived, as a Soviet plane crashes into and destroys her temporary home. She and Tomass decide to flee, hunted by both the Soviets and the Nazis; neither of whom offers safety or tranquility.
In their escape, they meet a young, starving Jewish girl who does not speak but follows them throughout their journey. A once-bourgeois girl, a mysterious farmhand with a tragic history, and a young girl who has the warmth of childhood ripped away; together, they form a constellation of survivors. Each part of their journey is harrowing and life-threatening, and yet they find pockets of human connection that flicker against the darkness.
One of the novel’s most striking achievements isn’t just how unflinching it is when it comes to portraying the massacres and brutality, but how clearly it exposes the underbelly of a more insidious violence—those who do nothing about it. The novel showcases how atrocities like these can build: through the silence of those too wrapped up in comfort to confront what is happening around them until it threatens them too. This is embodied in Greta; she recalls how a classmate of hers, Margaret Rosenthal, is “at her desk one day… then never heard from again.” She overhears boys at lavish parties spit antisemitic remarks and pretends not to hear them, all so she can enjoy herself. When she is now the victim herself, there is no one to stand up for her.
This is all blanketed by such rich historical accuracy. Latvia in World War II is not just the setting but embedded into every detail. It appears in the lives of women who face their own forms of gendered terror and in the shifting landscape as the war consumes everything around them The novel captures so much of this era with striking fidelity, from the burned-out synagogue in Rīga where Greta and Tomass pass “fractures of charred beams” and “skeletal pillars hovering atop the ruins like lost souls” to the security checkpoints where they must present papers or risk arrest. The details make a reality where the reader is on this journey with them, awaiting their shared fate. This accuracy honors the period and builds a stage sturdy enough for the characters to shine with clarity, precision, and emotional force.
Those Who Fled is an excellent choice for readers looking to immerse themselves in WWII reality. It’s a novel that brings life to all the trinkets left behind, cements the footsteps taken, and gives a home to the tattered pieces of fabric scattered in the wind.
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