The book “Cold Wing of Motherland” includes essays, interviews and sketches, also those written in prison.
The book's main theme is the former political prisoner's memories of his childhood, the town of his youth Svetlahorsk, years of study at a university in Homel, underground activities in the 1980s, first friends and associates. The book contains documents of those times relating to Ales Bialiatski's public activities, Viasna human rights centre writes.
“Cold Wing of Motherland” is a sort of a continuation of his book “Enlightened by Belarusian Issue” that was published when the author was in prison. Some of the essays were earlier published in the press.
“The title is ambiguous. It is clear why the wing is cold. The Motherland here looks like a bird, perhaps a cuckoo or a seagull. It looks like a cuckoo, as it doesn't take care of its children, and like a seagull, as their wings are silvery if one looks at them from the ground, and look cold in the sunlight. Such wings don't warm up the nestlings, by whom we can mean all those living under these wings,” Ales Bialiatski says.
