In 1940, Elena Jonaitas, a young Lithuanian woman, was in love and soon to be married. Then the Red Army invaded her country. Repression and the threat of deportation became a daily terror.

In 1941, the Germans drove the Soviets out. With her husband Vytas, and their two small children, Elena battled to preserve the domestic life she had dreamt of.

Three years later Elena's world was turned inside out. And yet, as she struggled on amid cruelty and suffering, she sometimes encountered the kindness of strangers where she least expected it. Elena's journey did not end with the war. She knew nothing of the joy and sorrow that still lay ahead of her before she would sail into Sydney Harbour in 1949 to begin a new life in Australia. Told in vivid and simple language, Elena's Journey is an unforgettable story of love and grief, of courage and survival.

Praise for Elena's Journey:

'Elena has written an ultimately uplifting book, her courage and spirit will be my abiding impression.'

— Lithuanian Papers

'The loss of one of her children and the feeling of total impotence in the face of such a tragedy heighten the depiction of herself as a human being, the writing becomes thicker and Elena, helped by the powerful sense of authenticity conveyed by autobiographical writing, assumes the shape of a real person, as if she were sitting next to the reader and telling her story aloud.'

— Antipodes

'Joniatis' language is simple and unadorned as though the words were taken down and transcribed straight from the mouth.'

— Sunday Age