House of Languages as a publishing house is grounded on a deliberate choice to pay attention to those niches, themes and authors which Latvian publishing as a whole does not cover to the extent we wish it did. Our publishing house is open to new linguistic, social, cultural and historical points of view – to new worlds to discover and to explore. We believe that a book does not consist only of text and information, but that it is a design item as well. That is why the design and typographic quality of our books are values in and of themselves.
Our books
Fiction (short stories)
Spectres (Rēgi)
by Elīna Kokareviča
Publisher: House of Languages (www.valodumaja.lv)
272 pages
Original illustrations by Līva Pakalne-Fanelli
Combining a meditative style, features of magical realism and the inexhaustibility of the short story with a polyphonic worldview, the book creates unusual and high-quality prose that highlights specific ambience and characters. Due to the author’s balanced, calm and developed language, spectres rise to the surface. They are different personae which can be simultaneously present in both the real world and the literary universe.
Poetry
Death of a Hen (Vysta smierts)
by Marija Dzeisla
Publisher: House of Languages (www.valodumaja.lv)
96 pages
Photography by Elena Helfrecht
Winner of the Annual Latgalian Culture Award “Boņuks 2021”
Marija Dzeisla is a heteronym, behind which is hidden not a single person, but a fluid identity, which changes depending on the narrative and is even capable of travelling through time. The author who wants to keep their identity anonymous in the poetry collection concentrates on being here and now, emphasising this being in the way it shapes itself in connection to history, family, and place through different periods of time.