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jesslolsen's review
5.0
“When he looks into your eyes, tells you he loves you-and the pickled herring and onions are stronger than his voice-yet you still smile. You still want to be close to him. Yes, then you have found love.”
This was a very well written book, the author has a gift for making the characters and settings come alive, and at the same time bringing each era together to round out the story.
I love hearing about different cultures and the Ukrainian lifestyle is not one I have come across in any depth before. How amazing to have so many ceremonies and rituals to hold on to, very fascinating!
This book shows the importance of family and how string those bonds are, even through different countries, generations and centuries! It also demonstrates the strength and ability of humans to heal and move on. "Love the past but live in the present".
This was a very well written book, the author has a gift for making the characters and settings come alive, and at the same time bringing each era together to round out the story.
I love hearing about different cultures and the Ukrainian lifestyle is not one I have come across in any depth before. How amazing to have so many ceremonies and rituals to hold on to, very fascinating!
This book shows the importance of family and how string those bonds are, even through different countries, generations and centuries! It also demonstrates the strength and ability of humans to heal and move on. "Love the past but live in the present".
authoraugust's review
5.0
Let this book be an example for all of those who claim I only hate Twilight and Eragon because of the bad grammar and poor punctuation. Lupescu's book was amazing. Normally, historical fiction is not up my alley, because it was how I learned history in my years homeschooling (and was therefore a chore and not a pleasure). However, this book was very much grounded in the emotional journey of the main character, who was startlingly empathetic for being someone I would dislike in real life. And amidst all of the well-researched and well-crafted story, a host of grammatical and punctuation errors lurked. Though I noticed them now and then, it was much less of a distraction than it is when the content of the writing is just as terrible.
I learned a lot from Nadya and her journey. I cried a lot along the way - beware, this is a three-tissue-box book - but I also drew a lot of strength and encouragement from the lessons Nadya learned. This is a perfect example of how fiction can teach so much more than any non-fiction self-help volume.
I learned a lot from Nadya and her journey. I cried a lot along the way - beware, this is a three-tissue-box book - but I also drew a lot of strength and encouragement from the lessons Nadya learned. This is a perfect example of how fiction can teach so much more than any non-fiction self-help volume.
serendipity730's review
3.0
This book had a lot of potential, but the characters just fell flat to me. I really enjoyed learning about Ukranian traditions and folklore, but characters were too one dimensional. The main character spends the vast majority of the book (and her life) having never spoken about her past, to the point where her own children don't know her real surname. In the last ~30 pages of the book, she suddenly begins discussing intimate details of her past. It just didn't ring true to me.
lindseyzank's review against another edition
4.0
I'm always surprised by the $3.99 or less Kindle books. I bought this one on a whim for a trip and found it enchanting. Ukrainian culture is really quite charming and old fashioned. I thought the strengths of the novel were in the flashbacks to the time of World War II when the protagonist and her family is affected by the Nazis and Russians (I won't give anything away!) and the weaknesses of the novel were in the present day unfolding of events that occur in the second half of the novel. Overall, I would read another novel by this author.
nursenell's review
5.0
Well, my review disappeared.
This is a very powerful book about a Ukranian girl, Nadya, who leaves her home one night to get her fortune read by a gypsy woman at a nearby camp in the woods. Her life is forever changed because that is the night the Germans destroy her village and family home. The book follows Nadya during WWII and for 50 years after the war. She is a woman of many secrets who, in the end, finds it is truth that sets one free.
The book is full of Ukranian customs and folklore. This is in the top 5 of my WWII books read.
This is a very powerful book about a Ukranian girl, Nadya, who leaves her home one night to get her fortune read by a gypsy woman at a nearby camp in the woods. Her life is forever changed because that is the night the Germans destroy her village and family home. The book follows Nadya during WWII and for 50 years after the war. She is a woman of many secrets who, in the end, finds it is truth that sets one free.
The book is full of Ukranian customs and folklore. This is in the top 5 of my WWII books read.
tasmanian_bibliophile's review against another edition
5.0
‘What else does an old woman have but memories and fantasies?’
In the present, Nadya Lysenko is a seventy year old woman living in Chicago, surrounded by her family: husband, children and grandchildren. Fifty years have elapsed since she last saw her parents and her sisters in the Western Ukraine, and Nadya has kept many secrets during those fifty years. At sixteen, Nadya left her home one night to meet a Gypsy fortune teller in the nearby woods. Nadya was keen to have her fortune told, and while she was away soldiers burned her family home. She could find no survivors, and after a period as a displaced person in a German labour camp, marries and emigrates to the USA.
‘I had no idea what that new life would look like, but I knew it could not include my past.’
Years later, Nadya remains haunted by the deaths of her parents and sisters. She feels guilty that she has survived and they have not and she wonders whether she could have changed the course of history by staying home that night. Nadya has never told her husband or children of her past, although she shares Ukrainian traditions and customs with them. This legacy of her past, the importance of these myths and of their magic, can be shared: house spirits must be taken care of, and dreams treated with respect. But through guilt and fear she does not speak of the people who were part of her life.
But then events make Nadya realise that the past cannot always be kept separate from the present, and that keeping secrets does not always protect those she cares about. Nadya discovers, too, that accepting and speaking about the past leads to other possibilities and opportunities in her own life.
I loved this novel. Nadya’s story – both past and present - is engrossing. Her experiences are both a poignant reminder of the destruction and disruption of lives during World War II, and of the resilience of the human spirit.
‘Names made connections between the dead and the living.’
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
In the present, Nadya Lysenko is a seventy year old woman living in Chicago, surrounded by her family: husband, children and grandchildren. Fifty years have elapsed since she last saw her parents and her sisters in the Western Ukraine, and Nadya has kept many secrets during those fifty years. At sixteen, Nadya left her home one night to meet a Gypsy fortune teller in the nearby woods. Nadya was keen to have her fortune told, and while she was away soldiers burned her family home. She could find no survivors, and after a period as a displaced person in a German labour camp, marries and emigrates to the USA.
‘I had no idea what that new life would look like, but I knew it could not include my past.’
Years later, Nadya remains haunted by the deaths of her parents and sisters. She feels guilty that she has survived and they have not and she wonders whether she could have changed the course of history by staying home that night. Nadya has never told her husband or children of her past, although she shares Ukrainian traditions and customs with them. This legacy of her past, the importance of these myths and of their magic, can be shared: house spirits must be taken care of, and dreams treated with respect. But through guilt and fear she does not speak of the people who were part of her life.
But then events make Nadya realise that the past cannot always be kept separate from the present, and that keeping secrets does not always protect those she cares about. Nadya discovers, too, that accepting and speaking about the past leads to other possibilities and opportunities in her own life.
I loved this novel. Nadya’s story – both past and present - is engrossing. Her experiences are both a poignant reminder of the destruction and disruption of lives during World War II, and of the resilience of the human spirit.
‘Names made connections between the dead and the living.’
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
mtamra's review against another edition
5.0
What a wonderful story so beautifully written. I have not read a book that has moved me so much in years. I loved the rituals described that were part of the Ukrainian culture. I did not want the book to end.
spacedlaw's review against another edition
5.0
A most pleasurable ride into history, complete with chills and laughter.
cuddleaporcupine's review
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25