Fleeing Stalin's advance into Lithuania, shaken by communism and war, four refugees end up in Toronto in 1949. Vytas, a young doctor who gets into medical school by saving a child's life, is haunted by a lost love. Maryte, a seamstress whose affair with a German officer saved her half-witted brother, struggles to take care of him. Justine, a concert pianist raped during the war, strives to regain her ability to make music. Father Geras, an illegitimate child steered into the priesthood by family, finds purpose in guiding his exiled people. Trying to resume normal lives, longing for their country's freedom, they wait to go home.

Irene Guilford's work has appeared in various journals and anthologies, and has been short-listed in both the CBC Literary Competition and the Event Creative Non-Fiction Contest. marks her second publication of fiction with Guernica, following her novel, The Embrace. She lives in Toronto with her husband, Nigel.

Irene Guilford's profile page

Poignant, heartfelt and wise, Waiting for Stalin to Die offers tender portraits of Lithuanian refugees conflicted by their longing for both safety in exile and a return to their homeland. Irene Guilford’s writing brings clarity and compassion to memorable characters who transcend their historical moment and speak to our common humanity. A must-read.

Carole Giangrande, author of All That Is Solid Melts Into Air

In an acute portrayal of family life, life in boarding houses, in the Lithuanian community and the parish, Guilford uses touching imagery (“His eyes held the vastness of the ocean he had just crossed.”), as well as a sophistication of language and an intricacy of theme that takes the reader beyond any ordinary immigrant story. We see clearly how the newcomers share the gnawing pain of longing, the guilt of leaving lives and loves behind, how they “clung together in the fierce closeness of a people far from home”, thinking their life here was temporary.

Lights of the Homeland

Waiting for Stalin to Die

is a highly recommended read. It is incredibly moving and filled with rich and wonderful people with stories that need to be heard and understood.

LiteraryHoarders

Waiting for Stalin to Die by Irene Guilford is a touching and thoughtful novel about post-war immigrants from Lithuania living and settling in Toronto from 1949 to 1953. Irene Guilford is a Canadian author whose work has been shortlisted for both the CBC Literary Competition and the Event Creative Non-Fiction Contest. She is also the author of The Embrace, another novel concerning the Lithuanian experience of exile and immigration. Waiting for Stalin to Die is Guilford’s second fiction novel.

PRISM International

This exquisite novel captures the complex and touching successes and failures of a generation of postwar immigrants learning to leave the past behind and start new lives. They meet kindness and cruelty, good luck and bad, and adapt as best they can. The lovely, restrained prose reminded me at moments of Colm Toibin, and Samantha Harvey. This is a novel that contains a rare combination of intelligence and heart. I couldn't put it down.

Antanas Sileika, author of Underground