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Our servers are getting hit pretty hard right now. To continue shopping, enter the characters as they are shown Cassie is still grieving the loss of her husband. When her mother encourages her to move home to care for her ailing grandmother, Cassie reluctantly agrees. What she discovers is her grandmother's journals of her childhood and life in Ukraine that told the heart wrenching account of the Holodomor that took the lives of millions of Ukrainians. Told through the voice of Katya who lived through the vicious assault of Joseph Stalin. Stalin set out to eradicate the population through starvation, deportation to the Gulag and murder. Despite the loss of most of her family, Katya finds the inner strength to survive and find a glimmer of hope on the darkest of days.
In my opinion this is a must read, especially since I have already talked with so many other people who have never heard of this. Learning about the Holodomor also gives another layer of perspective on the current tragedy taking place in Ukraine today. My heart breaks more for all the Ukrainians have suffered. There were some aspects that were spot on. Like teaching 2nd and 3rd generation their language. But nearly all else was pure fiction in both a form and melodrama sense of sentimentality for the Illinois narratives. TRUTHFULLY, almost all sentimentality has been sunk nearly completely in these survivors. And they drink alcohol. ALL. This story alternates between 1929/early thirties and 2004. The earlier time frame chronicles the experiences of Katya during the Holodomor in Ukrainia, while the latter introduces her in later years with her daughter, grand daughter, Cassie, and great granddaughter, Birdie. Rachelevelyn wrote: "This was such a moving book. One of many I’ve read recently but it brings more light yet again to “Man’s inhumanity to man.” It is so apparent in our world and as I read about these characters I pr..."
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This is a story of fictional characters based on true events during the Homodor. The characters are based on people that lived during that time and either gave testimony or wrote about it. The story is heartbreaking and tear jerking. I cannot fathom how anyone could treat people in such a manner. I also do not know how anyone survived during this time of great famine. My thanks to Boldwood Books and NetGalley for the DRC of “The Memory Keeper of Kyiv”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. Although this is a novel, it’s a story of love, tragedy, endurance, and survival that sheds light on the brutal attempt by Stalin to eradicate the Ukrainian people and their culture under Soviet rule. With its likable characters and real sense of place, it’s a book that is hard to put down. However, despite the serious subject, the book does have a lighter romantic thread as well.
The thing really impressing me was the resilience and strength the characters show through adversity. Breathtaking. Devastating. Erin Litteken's The Memory Keeper of Kyiv chronicles a defining but forgotten moment of Ukrainian history.” Amanda McCrina, author of The Silent Unseen So this book being entwined with a romance? And also the form itself. The dialogue was YA. Telling and telling too. Not showing. And few populations could be farther removed from both of those habits. Not in real life. Or any reality I've seen them live. Nor any I have loved or have seen departed early from the aftermaths. I suppose that the story of the past did have me a little more hooked than the present day. That I suppose is often the fault of dual timelines. Yet, it was a richly researched novel that I haven't stopped talking about. I cannot wait to read the author's next novel.Tanya wrote: "As a Ukrainian immigrant myself this book truly brought me to tears I think in part jsut thinking about what is going on in ukraine right now. Thanks for sharing this story loved it!!!" A stunning portrait of Ukraine and its people, of strength, of endurance, of the fight for survival during the forced famine, the Holodomor, but also a tender story of Katya, a grandmother whose hidden history holds the power to guide her granddaughter through the darkness of loss and grief, toward life and a limitless future. A remarkable read not to be missed." Lis a Wingate, author of Before We Were Yours
Set in Ukraine in the early 1930s, this book tells the story of Katya and her family. In the present day Cassie and her family live in Illinois. The dual timeline takes us from the horrors of the Holodomor, when Stalin’s regime forced the collectivisation of farms across the Soviet Union and one family’s fight for survival, and the present day where Cassie has to learn to live without the love of her life. First of all these are very savvy and punctured people. Living through lifetimes of being full boat annihilated and all their goods, homes, cultural mores, religion being taken away from them by government. And usually not even able to speak their own languages in schools or any public forum. Starvation merely one of the sidebars. Erin Litteken's passion for Ukrainian culture and history is evident through this sensitive, impactful tribute to a little-known, deeply important time. Heart wrenching and heart warming, THE MEMORY KEEPER OF KYIV is a story of unwavering courage and unyielding hope. Seventy years later, a young widow discovers her grandmother’s journal, one that will reveal the long-buried secrets of her family’s haunted past.
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Told in dual contemporary/historical romance threads, the sugar-coating on the tragedy will make it slightly easier for some readers to swallow. I would have liked to see the story come alive through the characters' action rather than to have them talk about it, but this is an ambitious topic for a novice author who will only get better in subsequent books. With the help of a kind neighbor who is fluent in Ukrainian, Cassie is able to translate her grandmother’s journal. Through this journal, Cassie learns of the unspeakable hardships her grandmother suffered during the Holodomor (great famine) inflicted on the Ukrainian people at the direction of Stalin in the 1930’s.
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