Shadow of a Soul marks the premier appearance of Russian poet Bella Dizhur in English. It is also the first complete collection of her poetry in any language. Included, in facing page translations, are poems, (written over a period of 50 years before the book was published in 1990) some of which brought her sharp criticism in the Soviet Union: she was denounced for being the Akhmatova of her time and criticized for an aesthetic pessimism.Included for the first time is the entire poem Janusz Korczak, which won Dizhur the title of Korczak Laureate from the West German Korczak Committee. It is a moving account of his life, and ultimate death when he chose to accompany his children to the gas chambers of Treblinka during World War II. These two memoirs celebrate the magic of growing up in small villages in the British Isles during the 1930s and 1940s. For Walsh, it was a time of contentment in a closely knit Irish farming community where "luxury was a full stomach and being clothed." Her reminiscences of odd neighbors, local customs, holy days, and school are interspersed with folklore and ghost stories. She looks back at her childhood with fondness and delight. Novelist Ellis's (Serpent on the Rock, LJ 10/1/95) nostalgia, on the other hand, is filled with melancholy, not only a yearning for what is gone but also a sorrow for what has changed. Her portrayal of the unspoiled beauty of the North Wales coast contrasts sharply with her depiction of its present-day ugliness, a condition brought about by tourism and suburbia. Along with details from her childhood, Ellis presents legends, myths, historical facts, and memories of raising her own children in an isolated wilderness area. Her scenic descriptions are enhanced by an abundance of evocative black-and-white photographs of the Welsh landscape. Though their moods are quite different, both books are well written and suitable for regional collections.?Ilse Heidmann, San Marcos, Tex. Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. A Welsh Childhood is strengthened by photographs, large and handsome: they celebrate the misty greyness and wetness of rural Wales, small, ruined houses in vast, luminous landscapes. Part reminiscence, part grab bag of historical and social curiosities, part meditation on such difficult subjects as death and happiness (with detours into the evils of tourism an suburbia) . . . . It's for grown-ups with a taste for the bracingly idiosyncratic, for a writer who bristled with sardonic charm. -- The New York Times Book Review, Dizhur was a member of the Sverdlovsk branch of the U.S.S.R. Writers Union, and won national awards. But she was denounced for much of her poetry and lived seven years in Yurmala as a refusnik, a person denied an exit visa. She was finally allowed to emigrate to the U.S. in 1987, at the age of 84. Used Book in Good Condition