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. After her husband’s death, Cassie felt she had lost her ability to write. Birdie stopped talking. Have you – or has someone close to you – ever felt that words have failed you after a trauma? 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. In the 1930s, Stalin’s activists marched through the Soviet Union, promoting the greatness of collective farming. It was the first step in creating a man-made famine that, in Ukraine, stole almost 4 million lives. Inspired by this, Erin Litteken reimagines their story. 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.

As the granddaughter of a Ukrainian refugee from WW2, the poignancy of this war devastates me. While we can’t change history, we can all learn from it and do something to help the Ukrainian people today. I’m so pleased that my publisher, Boldwood Books, is donating a share of the proceeds of this novel to DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. I couldn’t be happier to be a part of that effort. The Holocaust is the most widely known and notorious genocide in modern history, yet it is not the most deadly. At the same time Hitler was enacting his Final Solution, Soviet Union leader Josef Stalin plotted a forced famine that killed nearly twice as many people as Hitler's Holocaust. The Memory Keeper of Kyiv follows 16-year-old Katya and her family as they fight to survive Stalin's famine. It’s a heady finale for an author who spent 10 years chipping away at her idea for a novel, squeezing in writing sessions between her part-time job and raising two kids, now teenagers. Zeventig jaar later. Omdat Katya’s kleindochter Cassie jong weduwe is geworden, trekt ze tijdelijk bij haar oma in. Daar ontdekt ze het dagboek van haar grootmoeder, dat het schokkende verhaal achter haar familie onthult: een verhaal over hoop, doorzettingsvermogen en liefde onder de meest barre omstandigheden.Katya broke the law again and again to get food for her family, even after Alina’s death. Did she make the right choice? Why do you think Alina sacrificed herself and took the blame for Katya’s theft? At the engagement party – meat, potato, and sour cherry varenyky, holubtsi, potatoes, slabs of ham, loaves of bread, cheese, fruit, and, of course, the intricately decorated wedding bread: korovai. Note: If you are in a depressed state of mind, please stay away from the book until you are in a stronger mental headspace. There are many triggering events in the 1930s timeline. While most of the extreme triggers aren’t detailed out directly, what’s happening behind the screen is enough to induce nightmares.

Although not pictured, it is almost always served with a large spoonful of sour cream on top and some people mix it in to the soup before serving. In 1929, Katya is 16 years old, surrounded by family and in love with the boy next door. When Stalin's activists arrive in her village, it's just a few, a little pressure to join the collective. But soon neighbors disappear, those who speak out are never seen again and every new day is uncertain. Ukraine is fertile and plentiful, and Stalin thinks we should be the breadbasket of the Soviet Union. To achieve that, he wants us to give up our land and join collective farms. This has been going on in villages all across Ukraine for months, and they could arrive here at any time.”This is a story of the resilience of the human spirit, the love that sees us through our darkest hours and the true horror of what happened during the Holodomor. What has your own experience with Ukraine been prior to this book? Did the settings feel familiar from your own travels there? Forcibly transferring (internally or externally) members of that group in a relocation program or forcibly assimilating them.

This is a story that will not be easily forgotten. It will stay with you long after you read it. It is a part of history I knew nothing about. I cannot believe now the Soviets are once again terrorizing the people in the Ukraine. History really does repeat itself. I do recommend this book. 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. Some survived, most did not. This is a story of a family that would have lived during those times and how they might have survived. It is also a story of Katya after the Homodor and how she dealt with the aftermath and survivor's guilt. A story of her daughter and granddaughter and how on her death bed she finally found peace.The characters in the present day story are linked to the characters in the past by a discovered journal telling of the hardships suffered in the past. This is a very interesting book that shows strong courage and unwavering hope. We are assured there is light after the darkness. The Memory Keeper of Kyivis a novel chosen through Book Club Bites’ collaboration with The Best of Women’s Fiction podcast.