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From Country To Country

by Peter I. Buttuls

230 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); Black and white photos; catalogue #06-0679; ISBN 1-4120-8923-9; US$21.15, C$23.50, EUR16.79, £11.75

The inspiring saga of a Latvian family that fled Soviet oppression during WWII, survived Nazi Germany, then settled in Canada, and the resolute author's personal struggles to eventually establish himself successfully.

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About the Book

About the Author

Excerpts

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About the Book

In From Country to Country Peter Buttuls relates the story of his multicultural family in three countries: Latvia, Germany, and Canada. He begins with his grandfather, a doctor, and his professional achievements in Latvia, while living under the strict Czar regime of Russia. The author then relates the stories of adventure, mischief, and fun his father and family experienced. That all came to an end when the Soviet Union took control of Latvia in 1940. After living in its accustomed upper class lifestyle, the Buttuls family then lived "underground" for six months for fear of being deported to Siberia. Their escape to Nazi Germany is described, with the difficult life there.

From then on the book becomes the author's memoirs of his life's happy and unhappy experiences, including that with the opposite sex. Life in a village and small town in Germany during the Second World War is described, with experiences of mischief and fun times as the bombs fell. The equally difficult times after the war are related, when the family lived in a bathroom for several months. Finally they had a chance to start a new life in Canada. The challenging time during the first five years in a hamlet with a population of twenty are told, as Buttuls and his family learned another language and had to adjust to the different culture and lifestyle in their adopted country. The family's move to Vancouver meant going to the largest high school in Canada from education by correspondence. Despite living in semi-poverty in Vancouver, where the four boys in the family slept in a small room in bunk beds, the author was able to achieve two university degrees. He intertwines history and politics with the events described.

To make the story more interesting, the author works in some of the basics of computing, weather, mountaineering, and other topics.

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About the Author

Peter Buttuls was born in Riga, Latvia, in 1937 in a multicultural family with upper class background that spoke German, Latvian, and Russian at home. His grandfather had done much for the country in the areas of education, journalism, politics, and medicine. Because Peter's father had fought in the student army defending his beloved Latvia, his family, after living "underground" for six months, was forced to flee Latvia in 1941 when Russia took control of that country. They chose to take refuge in Nazi Germany because Peter's mother was of German descent. In Berlin the family lost all their possessions and one life in an air raid. In 1951 the family had an opportunity to immigrate to Canada and start a new life there. After five years as settlers in a tiny hamlet in British Columbia, the family moved to Vancouver, where Peter attended the largest high school in Canada and later received his B.Sc. (Physics) at UBC in 1964. Three years later he obtained his M.Sc. at the University of Toronto, specializing in Meteorology. After only four months in that field, Peter moved to Edmonton, where he worked as a programmer-analyst for twenty-eight years before retiring to Victoria in 1995. In Edmonton he married Ena Wheelock, whose father had a very successful career with the Canadian Bible Society.

The author may be contacted at ye025@victoria.tc.ca.

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Excerpts

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Catalogue Information

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