Inspired by actual events, Castle of Light focuses on a group of Latvian soldiers who escape the Red Army’s siege of Danzig during World War II and flee across the Baltic Sea to Sweden, only to be put in detention to await their fate. 'Within weeks of their arrival the Swedish Cabinet concludes a secret deal with Soviet Russia. In exchange for Polish coal vital to Sweden’s steel industry, the Swedish government will deport to the Red Army all the military refugees who have fought on the Eastern Front. Castle of Light starkly dramatises the collision between humanity and politics that generates hunger strikes, suicide and murder. Coiled within the drama is Sweden’s unique past that underlies the motivation to undertake such an abhorrent act' (publication blurb).
Castle of Light is the third in a trilogy of Latvian novels by Oskar Lapa.
