EN
Ireland and Latvia are situated at the furthest opposite ends of Europe. Nevertheless, as member states of the EU they are linked economically and also culturally. After the restoration of independence in 1991, the Latvian economy underwent the painful process of restructuring, which made many people redundant. Therefore, many of them went to wealthier countries in the West, including Ireland, to earn money by doing unskilled jobs. Ireland was regarded as the Promised Land. Laima Muktupavela's novel 'The Mushroom Covenant' (2002) tells about Latvians working on a mushroom farm in Ireland. Her realistic description of the mundane toil and exploitation destroys the myth of the Promised Land.