A story of two men, a generation apart, one growing up in the shadow of the other.

Peter Jirgens tells the story of his youth as the son of Arnold Jirgens, a Latvian immigrant, who struggled against discrimination to establish his family in Nowra, Australia. He shares the stories his father told him of the hardship of life under Soviet rule, his escape from Europe after World War Two and the early days of his new life as an immigrant in a land far from home.

Fiercely Latvian, Arnold Jirgens longs to see his homeland once more and find out if his remaining family has survived,...