Destiny's Darling

Destiny's Darling is a beautifully told love story whose plot is intertwined with the history of Latvia, a small country in northern Europe. The story of Anita spans three generations beginning at the height of World War I before the fall of Czarist Russia and weaves through Latvian independence from 1918 to 1939 when the country was successively occupied by the Soviet Union, then Nazi Germany and then at the end of the war re-occupied by the Soviets. Anita and her family fled from the war as refugees to the United States finding happiness after initial struggle and then her life ended on a profoundly ironic note. The author reveals the experiences of a family that overcomes the challenges created by wars and by peace and the moral compromises involved in survival. Anita is the core personality in the book and its primary narrator. Her story is fast paced presenting a complex personality that rises above her situation that often presents morally ambiguous choices.