Migration is the theme of our times. Migration and displacement. On the news daily, and central to the two books launched by Riverton Press earlier this year. In one case, the family members carried the title refugee, in the other, the protagonist is a voluntary migrant.
At the launch of Nathalie Apouchtine’s No Way Back, Revolution and Exile, Russia and Beyond, a member of the public questioned the author about the book title: is there really no way back?
Each migrant, each refugee, each traveller will have their own answer to this question, though a brief glance at world population patterns shows that there is rarely a way back.
Nathalie considered the question in the context of her family, who belonged to the group known as Russian émigrés, who left Russia after the 1917 Revolution. Some members of her family did go back to the Soviet Union, believing that the social experiment in the 1920s was worth contributing to, but for most, a return was probably not possible, for political reasons. New regimes are unforgiving, then as now.
Dodging politics, Nathalie replied: In theory, I suppose you can go back, but in practice, people are leading their new lives and have to concentrate on that daily life. And then there are the children born in the “new country”…
In any case (time travellers excepted), you can’t go back to the past.
In The Legend of Busby, Vittoria Pasquini also ponders the lives of migrants from Italy and other places, and their motivations for leaving their home country. While her book is a very personal memoir based around her sandstone “castle” and the life of a single mother, migration is part of her story, and the thought Could I? Should I? Go back? occurs occasionally.
She considers the migration stories of her friends:
(VOICES OFF)
… that they had left Italy because they had become disillusioned with the fractured dreams of revolution and wanted to venture to a place as far as possible from the place of political defeat, that they wanted to live in the natural wilderness and wanted to learn about Aboriginal culture and the Aborigines, that they had met their great Australian love somewhere … that Australia was less homophobic than their country, that they had come for work and then remained, that they felt free to do and be whatever they wanted …
At the launch, a friend of Vittoria’s, teacher Cesare Popoli, read – nay, declaimed – this segment, with the public slowly beginning to laugh as contrasts become more evident:
…that here it was easy to find work and a place to live … that the beaches were all free … that here everyone, from the worker to the billionaire, went to the pub all together in thongs … that the dole was easy to get and enough to live on, if only modestly, that a city like Sydney, where the sea was pristine even with four million inhabitants, had parks available every few steps, public swimming pools cheaply accessed, always good weather even in winter, how wonderful it all was!
Vittoria’s book launch was held at the Italian Cultural Institute in Sydney and introduced by Institute Director Paolo Barlera. Translator Gino Moliterni spoke of how he loves Vittoria’s writing. As I didn’t take any notes, I’ll have to quote Italian editor, Oliviero Toscani, who read the Italian book, La Leggenda di Busby, and wrote:
“Vittoria Pasquini’s novel opens up a small world, almost an Australian Brideshead, with its own intensity and a warm gaze, attentive to colour, to small detail. She makes a strong choice in her style, almost a renunciation of a classic plot. We hear a voice with character…”
Nathalie Apouchtine’s launch was held at the NSW Writers Centre in Callan Park, and we enjoyed a Q&A session with her friend and fellow Russian-Canadian-Australian, Lucy Godoroja. Lucy is also an author and historian – she has written a history of buttons titled All Buttons Great and Small. They say their family stories have many parallels – and many differences.
Nathalie’s book examines varied migration stories, as she relates the experiences of many family members. She says that refugees often retain hope of going back to the place they fled – but in the end, that’s usually impossible.
When I was a child, I often heard the phrase “sitting on their suitcases” in reference to Russian refugees in France between the world wars. It was a strong image in my young mind: my relatives, most of whom I knew only from photos… sitting on bulging cases, ready to jump up at a moment’s notice and hurry back to the homeland they had fled …
The loss of nation they suffered was accompanied by loss of citizenship. Nathalie’s parents lived in France for many years, but were not granted something they would have liked: French citizenship. This was an important factor behind their decision to move to Canada. Nathalie (born in France) writes in the book:
When I was born, my papers identified me as a refugee. By the time I was old enough to have any inkling of what that meant… I was a Canadian – and my parents often reminded me to be grateful for this. After more than thirty years of not officially “belonging” anywhere, they had been granted citizenship… they never forgot that [Canada] had let them finally grasp that bit of paper taken for granted by so many, which signified they could stay as long as they wanted, that they had somewhere they could call “home”.
Poet Colleen Keating says the book No Way Back is “a wonderfully traced family history, interweaving personal stories with world history in an engaging and captivating way. It is a scholarly work, personalised by memoirs, diaries, recorded interviews, eye-witness accounts, old photos, keepsakes, letters and postcards from throughout the 20th century and enriched by the author’s visits in the 1990s to trace the footsteps of her ancestors.”
Colleen continues: “Nathalie makes us, the readers, feel we are unravelling the story together, as she fulfils her father’s aim of being a citizen of the world. No Way Back is a valuable addition to our Russian history.”
La Leggenda di Busby and The Legend of Busby by Vittoria Pasquini and No Way Back, Revolution and Exile, Russia and Beyond by Nathalie Apouchtine are available in print and electronic formats through usual retail outlets. You may also contact Riverton Press at info@rivertonpress.com
The shipping image is from the National Migration Museum https://digital-classroom.nma.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-07/Yr10_MigrationExperiences_4.jpg
