This Historical Fiction about two families facing starvation during the Holodomor, meaning literally "starvation by hunger" in Ukrainian, tells a powerful and important story. By time hopping (are there any Historical Fictions that don't time hop? I feel like those don't exist anymore!) between 2004 and the early 1930s, we uncover the story of Katya, a strong-willed survivor who watched her family, her neighbours and other members of her community perish solely because the greedy Russian government didn't want them to exist. Much like some of the characters in the present day portion of this story, many people are not very familiar with the Holodomor, one of only five genocides recognized as such by the Canadian government. Holodomor may sound a bit like Holocaust, and it also was very similar in a lot of ways, but it was a separate event that took place a decade before WWII. At a time when war is raging between these two groups yet again, we are reminded that we must learn from our past or we are doomed to repeat it. Honestly, that should be a selling point for this book all on it's own, but I'm not done raving about it yet!
The Holodomor section of the story starts by showing the changing political environment as communism begins to spread in the USSR, showing how quickly the situation went from an idea to a very clear message that you need to get with the program or else. The author did a wonderful job showing that there were many ways that people tried to resist, especially in the early days, but the consequences were tragic for anyone who got caught (or was even just falsely accused). It is a difficult concept, I think, for many people who have not survived or done a significant amount of research about a genocide to understand why it was able to be perpetrated. Often there are masses of people and very few powerful men in charge, so then why doesn't anyone stop it? The risks to themselves and their families were often so great that shutting up and trying to survive was really the only option. You can see in this story though the little things, like burying preserved food in random holes around the farm or hiding your goat in a (deceased) neighbour's abandoned barn so that you can still get milk, that perseverance was important, and that no one was willingly submitting to these ideals, everyone was just trying to survive. The author clearly had a very strong understanding of the living conditions during this genocide and despite character after character dying, was able to show the never failing strength of the main character.
For more information about the Holodomor, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights has some really great resources and background info.
The present day section is also wonderful. I often find that when a Historical Fiction time hops to the present, the present day stuff is fluff. There's often a random kid helping clean out the neighbour's attic or new home owners finding a random message when they renovate their house, the present day story just helps break up or move along the main story, which takes place in the past. This book is not like that at all! I loved the story that was taking place in the present almost as much as I loved the gripping story going on in the past (and that's saying a lot because I really loved the sections on the Holodomor)! The present day portion is about a 31 year old widow named Cassie who moves in with her grandmother who is suffering from dementia and doing some peculiar things like hiding food all over the place (hmmm notice anything?). Knowing she doesn't have that much time left with her beloved grandmother, Cassie is desperate to learn more about her family's past, despite the fact that her grandmother refuses to talk about her life before she moved to the US. Beyond that though, we get to see Cassie's own challenges, which have parallels to what her grandmother experienced but are unique and complex. Her 4-5 year old daughter has developed selective mutism since the death of her father in a car accident, Cassie has abandoned her career as a writer and not even plugged in her laptop since her husband passed, and as she meets and begins to connect with a new love interest, she must determine whether or not she is ready to let someone new into her life. I would have gladly kept reading Cassie's story if it were it's own book!
So there you have it. This book is all around an awesome book. If you like historical fictions you need to read it. If you enjoy a little bit of Nicholas Sparks widow-meets-new-man-who-helps-her-daughter-talk-again (it could totally be a Nicholas Sparks plot line no?), this book is great and it will teach you way more about the Holodomor than The Notebook ever will! I really can't emphasize how much I loved this book. It really was everything I could want in a Historical Fiction and it was about a topic that is so important given current events and is not very well understood. I would highly recommend this book to all Historical Fiction lovers, I think you will love it! Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read and review this fabulous book!
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