Erin Litteken - The Memory Keeper of Kyiv

 

Erin Litteken - The Memory Keeper of Kyiv 

5 ⭐

Genre:  Historical Fiction, Culture, Fiction. 

Pages: 373

Format: eARC on NetGalley 

Publisher: Boldwood Books

Date Published: 16th May 2022

Can't thank enough Boldwood Books and NetGalley UK for a copy of eARC to read and review!

Book Blurb: 

In the 1930s, Stalin’s activists marched through the Soviet Union, espousing 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 the history the world forgot, and the Russian government denies it, Erin Litteken reimagines their story.

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 neighbours disappear, those who speak out are never seen again and every new day is uncertain.

Resistance has a price, and as desperate hunger grips the countryside, survival seems more a dream than a possibility. But, even in the darkest times, love beckons.

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.

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.

My Review: 

What a powerful book! I love historical fiction and I loved reading this beautiful book, although it made me cry like no other book ever did. The book is even more impactful and important in the light of current events in Ukraine and Russia’s brutality towards Ukrainian citizens.

The book follows two timelines, one set in the 1930s and one in 2004. In the 1930s story follows Katya, a young Ukrainian girl living in the Ukrainian countryside, who is so full of life, dreams, and love, and is surrounded by her loving family, her sister Alina and her parents. She is also in love with a neighbour’s boy who she wants to one day marry and have a big family with. All her dreams are shattered when in the early 1930s Stalin decides to collectivise all the rural farms across the countryside where Katya and her family reside. People who were opposed to this faced deportation to Gulags in Siberia, prison or death. Farmers and families that were left in the countryside faced starvation, as brutal grain and food quotas and taxes are introduced. Whilst most of the food were rotting away in train station wagons thousands of people were starving and dying, including Katya and her family. She is not only forced to eat whatever she found in the forests, including mice, worms, and rats but she also losses some of her loved ones. The 2004 timeline follows Cassie who after losing her husband, moves to her grandmother’s house to look after her. Her grandmother and grandmother’s journal are the ones who tell her about Holodomor, an unimaginable tragedy and man-made famine that happened in the 1930s in Ukraine.

Katya’s storyline was heart-wrenching at times, especially her losing family members and seeing how her loved home and countryside turn into crumbles with people being killed, deported or starved to death. Reading these chapters made me cry so much, especially since similar things are happening right now in Ukraine. I admired Katya’s strength and ability to fight for what is right. She never lost her spirit no matter how much she lost.

I really loved that this book explored Ukraine’s traditions in the 2004 timeline. Even though they all lived in the USA, the family still had very strong ties to the Ukrainian language, culture and traditions. Also, I always love to read about nalysnyky, varenyky and borscht as it takes me straight back to my childhood.

I didn’t know much about Holodomor before this book, although I do know a lot about deportations that happened to Gulags in Siberia before and during WW2 from family accounts. So for me, I had a big learning experience whilst reading this book too.  I am glad I learned about Holodomor and it definitely sparked my interest to read more, to know what happened and how many people were actually affected. This book is an amazing way of increasing awareness of this in the Western world, where people might not realise what truly happened across Eastern Europe in the 1930s and 1940s.

Overall: This story is a must-read, especially with what is happening now. Also, it is an important read for learning about Holodomor, especially if you like me didn’t know much about it before. It is so beautifully written it didn’t feel like its author's debut book at all.

Can’t recommend this book enough! 

This review was first published on NetGalley and can be found on:

https://www.netgalley.co.uk/book/252312/review/959200

About the Author: 

Erin Litteken is a debut novelist with a degree in history and a passion for research. At a young age, she was enthralled by stories of her family’s harrowing experiences in Ukraine before, during and after World War II. She lives in Illinois, USA with her husband and children.

http://www.erinlitteken.com/