It is 1893, and twelve-year-old Audra Zikaris lives on a farm with her father Henrikas and her mother Lina. Audra's father has a travelling magic show that takes him from one village to the next. On the night of the summer solstice, when the midsummer festivities are being held, Audra's father is getting ready to travel to another village. He suggests to her mother that Audra accompany him but her mother refuses saying that Audra might get lost and it is dangerous. From the argument between her parents Audra begins to understand that her father's travels to other villages as a magician is actually a cover for something else, which at this time she doesn't quite understand. Her mother relents, agreeing to allow Audra to go but warning her that she must follow their rules. Audra is warned to avoid a particular Cossack, a policeman named Rusakova who strictly enforces the Russian laws. Audra is told she must speak Russian and not Lithuanian like they do at home.
Later that evening, dressed in her finest clothes as Audra goes outside to hang out the laundry, she sees Cossack soldiers making their way towards their farmhouse. Running inside the house, Audra sees her father and mother quickly stuffing wrapped packages inside his traveling sack. Her father orders Audra to flee into the forest with her mother while he attempts to stall the soldiers. As they cross their farmland, Audra hears the soldiers break down the front door. When her mother falls, her foot tangled in wire, Audra stops to help but her mother urges her to flee into the forest. She gives Audra her father's bag and tells her she must deliver a package in the bag to a woman in Venska, named Milda Sabiene. Audra's last glance homeward is of her mother being arrested and their farmhouse being burned.Pursued into the forest by the Cossack soldiers, Audra hides in the underbrush. As night falls, Audra hears the Midsummer's Eve celebrations by a group of young people who have come into the forest. The group is questioned by a Russian, Officer Rusakov who offers them a reward should they find Audra.However, the group ends up helping Audra after they discover her hiding in the ferns. They form a protective circle around her so Rusakov and the soldiers can't see her and then give her a basket of cakes and directions to get to Venska.
After resting overnight, Audra continues her journey but soon finds herself lost. While attempting to cross a stream, she encounters a strange boy, Lukas who agrees to take her to Venska, after losing at a card trick. It turns out that not only does Lukas know Milda Sabiene but when Audra meets Milda, she discovers they both know her parents. In Milda's house, Audra sees that Milda is a woman in disguise. She learns that the package she has been carrying is a black leather bound book that requires a key to open the lock on the spine. Milda shows Audra the secret her of her home, two rooms beneath the house, one lined with shelves of books and the other a secret schoolroom. Milda offers Audra a place to stay which she initially refuses but then accepts when she learns that most likely her parents will be sent to Siberia. But in order for her to stay with Milda, she is asked to deliver a book her father was to supposed to. Audra refuses and tells her she will stay only until her ankle heals.
In the week that she stays with Milda, Audra begins to understand what is really happening. People come to visit Milda supposedly to buy butter or honey but in fact are coming to get books. One day after being sent downstairs to retrieve a newspaper for Milda, the Cossacks come and search Milda's home. Hidden in the basement, Audra meets a young girl name Roze who has come into the basement by a secret passage that leads out of the house to the shed in the backyard. After this, Audra decides to deliver the book Milda asked her to, in honour of her parents.
Expecting to be sent immediately to deliver the book, Audra finds instead that Milda is training her. And she explains why delivering the books is so important. After the most recent uprising against Russia, almost thirty years ago in which Milda's father was involved, the tsar wanted to ensure there would never be another uprising. To do that he decided to wipe out the Lithuanian culture by banning Lithuanian books. Audra now understands why delivering books to other homes is so important. But as she becomes increasingly drawn into the world of the book smugglers, Audra is faced with a difficult choice: betray her new friends and the work they are doing to save her parents or lose them forever.
Discussion
Words On Fire is set in the late 19th century Lithuania, a country situated on the Baltic Sea. Its history like that of many countries in Eastern Europe, is complicated as it involves connections with Poland, Russia, Prussia and Germany. Throughout history, the people of Lithuania have struggled against Russian occupation. A loose commonwealth with Poland was created in the 1500's called the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. However, in the late 1700's this commonwealth broke apart, with three partitions happening in 1772, 1793 and 1795. In the latter partition, much of the land was taken over by Russia.
The Lithuanian people attempted unsuccessfully to overthrow the Russians in 1831 and again in 1863. Each rebellion was followed by a period of attempted Russification but the period after the 1863 uprising saw a determined effort to destroy the culture of the Lithuanian people. The Catholic church in particular was persecuted and all Lithuanian schools were closed.
In 1863, Tsar Alexander II ordered that all instruction in schools be done in Russian instead of the native Lithuanian. In 1865, the use of the Latin alphabet was banned and replaced with the Russian Cyrillic alphabet. In 1866, books printed in Lithuanian were banned, an order that was enforced up until 1904, and schools and Catholic churches were closed.
However, the Russification of the Lithuanian people did not succeed in large part due to the "Kyngnesiai" or book smugglers. To preserve the Lithuanian language, a network of books smugglers was developed by Jurgis Bielinis. Illegal Lithuanian-language schools were also secretly set up. The purpose of the book smugglers was to bring into the Russian occupied areas, illegal Lithuanian language books which were printed in the Latin alphabet. The work of the smugglers was very dangerous because if caught they could be fined, exiled to Siberia or executed. Not surprisingly, the work of the book smugglers was not widely known until after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Words On Fire is set within this historical context, something that should have been presented to the target audience of young readers, in the form of a prologue so as to set the stage for the events in the novel. Also helpful would have been a map showing the region as it's unlikely readers would know much about Lithuania or even where it is situated within Europe. However, Nielsen eventually gives her readers that backstory through the characters of Lukas and Milda. Lukas explains Lithuania's history to Audra while Milda tells her of the role of the book smugglers.
The main character in the novel is twelve-year-old Audra ,whose parents are book smugglers arrested at the very beginning of the story. Audra stumbles onto the work her parents were involved in but is reluctant at first to get involved in book smuggling. Unable to read and having not attended school, Audra doesn't understand the importance of books. She argues, "The Cossacks are here to stay. A few words of protest in a book won't change that." But Lukas explains to her why saving Lithuania's language and books are so important to the survival of their culture. "It's not just wishing, Audra. This is a book of ideas. Someone thought the idea and put it into words on paper. That became a seed, and every time someone reads those words, the seed is planted in their mind, too, and it grows and spreads and soon that tiny seed of an idea becomes belief, and belief becomes a plan, and those plans begin to change the world. Control the books and you will control the people."
While Audra smuggles books she also begins to learn to read and to write stories. With this knowledge comes an understanding of the importance of books in the fight for Lithuanian culture. "The Russian Empire wasn't afraid of a country that spoke a different language. They were afraid of a country whose language denied Russia's right to control it. The words wouldn't lead to our independence --words themselves, their very existence, were our independence. If we surrendered our books to them, we'd surrender our minds, leaving us hollowed-out puppets, ready to be controlled."
Although she is bold, resourceful and intelligent, Audra seems much older and more emotionally mature than a twelve-year-old girl. She shows remarkable courage and integrity when she refuses to reveal the name of the book smuggler Office Rusakov is pursuing even though this means she will be sent to Siberia along with her parents. After she escapes, her determination to continue as a book carrier is even stronger. Audra transforms from the frightened, young girl lost in the forest to a girl wanting to take on the Cossacks by the end of the story. Based on the qualities Nielsen assigns her and her actions in the novel, Audra would have been a more realistic character if she were much older.
Nielsen captures the dangers and hardships the Lithuanian book smugglers endured, providing a testament to their determination to save their culture. Words On Fire focuses mainly on events in 1893 including the Kraziai massacre but reaches all the way to 1904 when the book ban was finally lifted. The Kraziai massacre occurred in November of 1893 in a the village of Kraziai. A Benedictine women's monastery, built in the 1600's was located in the village. The Benedictines had also built the Church of the Immaculate Conception in the late 1700's. In 1891, Tsar Alexander III ordered the monastery closed and the nuns transferred to another monastery in Kaunas. This was part of the Russification efforts to destroy the Catholic culture of Lithuania. Despite numerous petitions to save the monastery and the church, the tsar ordered both closed and demolished in June of 1893. When the Governor of Kaunas arrived in November of 1893 to enforce the tsar's orders, the Lithuanians had occupied the church and were successful in defeating the police. The next morning however, three hundred Cossack soldiers arrived and easily overran the Lithuanians. The conflict raged on for two weeks as Catholics were arrested, villages plundered, women raped and people drowned in the Krazante River.
This real historical event portrayed in Words On Fire, forms the climax of the novel, with Audra, Lukas and Ben trapped in the church in the village of Kraziai. While Audra wants to stay and fight both Ben and Lukas tell her that is not their role in the fight for Lithuania. Nevertheless, they are caught in the fighting. Nielsen uses this event to have Lukas and his father confront one another. It is a conflict that is hinted at throughout the novel and eventually revealed later in the story.
Overall, Words On Fire is in interesting piece of historical fiction about events little known outside of Eastern Europe. Fans of historical fiction will be motivated to learn more about Lithuania, its past and its vibrant culture which thankfully survives in an independent Lithuania today.
Book Details:
Words On Fire by Jennifer A. Nielsen
New York: Scholastic Press 2019
322 pp.
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