Ukraine Books

I had a hard time putting this book down! It is amazing, and horrible, the things that this woman went through as a child, and I am so grateful she relived the nightmare so that we might know what went on.

I feel that the book depicts exactly the kind of life the Jews lived in Germany. The author did very good when giving discriptions of the horrific sights of everything that was going on.

I just finished another very painful but interesting and shocking memoirs in "Thanks to my Mother" by Shoshana Rabinovici and started this book. It's absolutely shocking and heroic struggle to do everything possible to survive day-by-day and minute-by-minute the Systematic Nazi Plan to annihilate the Jewish People.
Highly highly recommend to every one who is interested in Holocaust and to everybody to read and to learn what was really WWII about.

An avid reader of Holocaust memoirs, I found "Alicia" an unforgettable story of survival.

Only a child at the onset of World War II in her native Poland, Alicia Jurman soon lost both her parents and all four brothers -- murdered, in different ways, for one reason, being Jewish. It was only through a strange destiny that young Alicia kept surviving herself -- once being pushed through a gap in a train window, heading for a concentration camp; another time, falling unconscious and being presumed dead by the Nazis, only to be rescued by an astute and caring Jewish gravedigger.

Yet even when a person is at her lowest, she can always find others even worse off. It would have been easy for Alicia to say she had nothing left to give; yet even during the most destitute and desperate of times, she shared food and supplies with other Holocaust survivors.

It was also this loving attitude that made Alicia take action after the war, when she noticed a number of starving orphaned children roaming city streets. Only 15 and an orphan herself, Alicia took it upon herself to establish a Jewish "orphanage," moving some 24 youths aged 10 to 15 into a vacated apartment and securing financial help to get their new lives underway.

Still a teenager, Alicia eventually sought refuge in Israel. But, as always, problems arose...

Alicia Jurman is a modern-day hero, guaranteed to inspire readers for generations to come.

This eye witness account of the holocaust in Poland is so horrific it would be too depressing to read, if it weren't for the author's lucid, straight forward prose. Alicia Jurman was 13 years old when she fought for survival against literally impossible odds in southeastern Poland and witnessed the destruction of her entire family, friends and neighbors. Her survival was accomplished through truly incredible pluck, strength of character, resourcefulness, and unbelievable good luck.
We already know (or should know) all about the horrors of the holocaust: the depth of depravity to which the human soul can sink; and we know that to forget this worst of all possible nightmares is to face another genocide in our lifetime (we already have in Darfur, Rwanda, Bosnia, and elsewhere).
What distinguishes "Alicia: My Story" despite the unspeakable horror is this horror as viewed through the eyes of a girl who simply refuses to give in and give up. She is an amazingly strong girl who used everything she had to survive. And she tells the story in a matter of fact way that propels the narrative forward and keeps the reader turning the pages to find out what happens next.
If one has never been exposed to what went on during World War Two, this excellent book is the perfect place to start.

I am a clinical psychologist, and I found Sara's Children well worth reading for the personalized insight it provides about the Holocaust. Although this book is poignant and heartrending, it remains well written without going over the top. The five Garfinkel siblings endured far beyond what human beings seem capable of bearing. Out of the war's destruction and nearly complete genocide, this family emerged without bitterness, without anger. That they managed not only to survive but also to rebuild their lives is a triumph of the human spirit.

A touching sad story of brave persecuted peoples caught in the political times and war. It is a story of faith and strength that has a happy ending of freedom with their escape and survival. It is a story that would be a great movie. The message is what happens to all families and groups caught in war and political up heavals still going on today. Ms. Hagstrom has caught and told us of the mood, the times, and emotional moment of the times. History is to be remembered in this book, to avoid being repeated. John Elwell

"Sara's Children" is a compelling story about five siblings who survived the Holocaust. Yet, their immediate family was not untouched: both parents and two other siblings were murdered by the regime.

I read this book after having re-read Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning." I followed it by reading "Night" by Elie Weisel. "Sara's Children" tells a story as shocking to the conscience as any narrative.

I can think of any book that portrays in such historical understanding and journalistic flair of what life has been like for these five holocaust survivors siblings.
Sara's Children is not only a compelling biography, it is a revealing personal story about a family caught up in the events for which no one could have prepared them.

I can think of any book that portrays in such historical understanding and journalistic flair of what life has been like for these five holocaust survivors siblings.
Sara's Children is not only a compelling biography, it is a revealing personal story about a family caught up in the events for which no one could have prepared them.

With Fire and Sword takes place in 17th Century Poland, and it chronicles the war between the Cossacks and the Polish gentry, from the perspective of the people involved. Once again, I'm reminded that this is an immeasurably more interesting way to view history than rote memorization of names and dates, and I wish I could go thump all my history teachers over the head with this big fat book.

It's mostly about Pan Yan something-or-other (the names gave me fits), a distinguished young lieutenant in the service of Prince Yeremi (or Yarema--I never did figure out the difference--I'm guessing one is the familiar form?). He's returning from a mission, when he sees a man who's been attacked and nearly killed, so he rescues him. The man turns out to be Hmyel...whatsis, whose feud with his neighbor is what starts the Cossack rebellion.

Pan Yan meets a young woman and falls in love, but her family has promised her to Bohun, of whom she's afraid. Much of the book concerns Pan Yan and his friends' attempts to rescue her and get her back together with Pan Yan, with an extremely brutal war in the way. Pan Yan is a romantic hero, a knight in shining armor, full of honor, devotion to duty, and devotion to his lady.

His friends are fascinating and entertaining characters. There's his squire, Zjendjan, who's a tricky young man, always out to make a profit, but nonetheless absolutely loyal. There's the giant Podbipyenta, who's vowed to remain celibate until he can best his ancestor's record and chop off three heads with one stroke. There's the diminutive Michal who's a master swordsman. And there's Zagloba, fat, older, prone to extreme exaggeration, a drama queen, who's a reluctant hero.

The Prince, Bohun, the rebel leader, and the government officials are more minor characters, but like the main characters, they're made real, and their motivations and doubts and emotions are all clearly drawn.

The story goes from one hair-raising situation to the next, and just when it looks as if things will be okay after all, something even worse happens. I think I read, either in the foreword, or in my research when choosing this book, that it was initially serialized in a newspaper. If it wasn't, it should have been, because that's how it reads. I could easily imagine reading one of the segments and then anxiously waiting for the next edition so I could find out what happened next.

I was quite pleasantly surprised by how entertaining and readable it was, by how engrossed I became in the story, and by the fact that I wasn't tempted to put it down and read something else, even though it took me the better part of a week to read it.

So, why only 4 stars? It's purely for the enjoyment factor. I did enjoy it, but it's not something I'll ever read again, and not even something I feel enriched by. I didn't finish it thinking "what a great book!" I'm not a student of history, or of eastern Europe, so the fact that it's written from apparently the wrong side of that conflict completely escaped me (until I read the reviews that pointed it out, of course).

I'm glad I read it, and I'll remember the characters, but I doubt I'll look for the other two books in the trilogy, or by Sienkiewicz's other works.

The great Polish/Lithuanian empire ruled all of central europe at one point - from Berlin to Moscow. I'm betting most of you weren't even aware of that. I wasn't either until I started reading more of european history. In developing a friendship with some people of Polish descent they recommended this author and his nobel prize winning novels to me. I was daunted by its length and by the date of when it was originally written. However, I started reading and have been hooked on these books ever since. I have come to believe that Mr. Sienkiewicz is the father of the modern novel. This is not a stilted 18th century read!
It gives you history (from a polish perspective) with fictionalized characters and a compelling story behind the backdrop of the calamitous decline of a once proud and powerful empire. The characters are heroic, tragic, conflicted and wonderful to follow. You will love this book and the several sequels in this decades spanning story.
One doesn't win a Nobel prize in literature if they can't write and Mr. Sieniewicz earned his.

I have read "With Fire and Sword," "The Deluge," and "Pan Michael" ("Colonel Wolodyjowski") and I recommend all of them highly. The characters are memorable and well-developed, the heroes are likeable, and even the villains are understandable as people with very human motivations.

Ask around a bit and you'll find no shortage of folks, men in particular, who became readers via their encounters in youth with class adventure tales: The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, Ivanhoe, the Lord of the Rings, etc. ask again and you'll find almost no one whose heard of half the Nobel Laureates in Literature, fewer who've read them, and none enjoyed many of them. All the more remarkable then that one of the great adventure authors of all time actually won a Nobel and somewhat tragic that so few have read him in recent decades. But Henryk Sienkiewicz has made something of a comeback and it could not be more welcome.

Sienkiewicz is the great author of Poland--indeed, to some extent his works are said to have created and helped to maintain the strong Polish identity that prevailed through the troubled 20th Century. When his books were first published -- mostly late in the 19th Century -- the English translations were done by Teddy Roosevelt's friend Jeremiah Curtin and, whether they were adequate for their time, they are are terribly dated now and have served to put off potential readers. Add in the fact that neither the Nazis nor the Communists had much interest in fostering Polish patriotism and you've the recipe for lost classics. But then, fittingly as the Iron Curtain was crumbling, Hippocrene Books commissioned a new translation of his greatest works, The Trilogy and Quo Vadis?, by the highly-regarded Polish novelist W. S. Kuniczak, and these eminently readable versions won Sienkiewicz a modern audience. New translations of other works followed, then a terrific film version of In Desert and Wilderness, and a massive Polish television adaptation of the Trilogy. Suddenly we've a surfeit of riches and some catching up to do.

If you're just starting out it might be wise to begin with Quo Vadis?, a stand alone tale of Christians in Rome that really deserves a fresh film treatment. But it's well worth your time to dive into the Trilogy, the first volume of which is the magnificent With Fire and Sword. Set in 1647, amidst a Cossack uprising against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, it tells the story of a young Polish patriot and hero, Yan Skshetuski, and his love for the beautiful Helen, who is also coveted the brutal Bohun, who fights with the rebels. Pan Yan's twin tales give us epic history and grand romance, while his compatriots offer comic relief. There's his wily servant, Zjendjan, whose semi-faithful service somehow keeps lining his own pocket. There's the mopey giant Pan Longinus, who has sworn a vow of chastity until he lives up to the example of his forebears and takes off the heads of three enemy soldiers with one swing of his massive battle sword. There's Pan Michal Wolodyjowski, whose bravery and feistiness belie his diminutive stature. And, best of all, there's the Falstaffian Pan Zagloba, who makes up in drinking capacity, gluttony, and biting wit what he lacks in zeal for battle, as he keeps his one good eye peeled for threats to his corpulent frame.

It'll take you a hundred to a hundred and fifty pages to orient yourself and get used to the odd names and nicknames, but the subsequent thousand pages go by far too fast. It's one of those stories you don't ever want to end.

I've read Kuniczak's translation of the Trilogy and greatly enjoyed it. It was my introduction to Seinkiewicz. However, while reading it, it seemed somehow incoherent, like something was missing. It also seemed impossible that the companions of Zagloba would be so credulous of his boasting.

I went and found a copy of the 1890 translation of the Trilogy by Jeremiah Curtin. What a difference! Though the language is somewhat archaic, the story flows so much better and the character of Zagloba is much more believeable. There is more context to his antics, and his companions are presented as far more skeptical of his boasting, making the story much more realistic.

Kuniczak seems to have omitted and simplified much that appears in the Curtin translation, to the detriment of the story. Many believe the Kuniczak version is superior, and maybe it is more accessible, but I recommend you find the old editon in the basement of the local library and read it first.

I originally got this book from a local library along with 5 or 6 others on international adoption. I am set on adopting from Russia as I am actually from there (lived there until I was 20), and am fully bi-lingual. I read the other books first and returned them to the library quickly. And then I started reading this book. I realized right away that I would have to get my own copy of it.
I am actually going through the process independently, without an agency, and I don't think I would be able to do it without this book. I cannot believe how familiar the author is with regional offices, hotels, embassies. It's like he's worked as a facilitator in several regions before writing this.
There are some misspellings and typos in the book, and please don't learn Russian from it (just common sense, really - I didn't learn my English from a Russian :)) ), but if you want to understand exactly how your adoption process is going, buy this book. It is a reference to be used and consulted again and again throughout the process.
The book also has chapters on some former USSR republics, so if you're adopting from Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan and such, this is also very helpful.

This book is chock full of specific and useful information, everything from shopping for agencies to how to evaluate a child before you adopt for potential medical/developmental issues (including a list of pediatricians who specialize in international adoption) to what to put on line 12 of form I-600A. He describes the regions and gives web addresses for online information. The most recent edition is from 2004 and as international adoption rules seem to change frequently, it would be great if the author did another more current edition. It seems the changes are more 'in word' than 'deed' however, and the gist of things is much the same. As someone just beginning the journey, this book has already helped me make major and solid decisions. Maclean is honest and doesn't talk down to you. This is for parents who want to be active, engaged advocates for their children even before you've met them and has good info. about countries other than Russia as well.

This is the everything you need to know about Russian adoption in one book guide. It is a little dated right now with re-accreditation issues starting in 2005, but it is still a very relevant and important guide to adopting from Russia. I suggest purchasing this book before you choose an agency as it gives lists of very important questions to ask a potential agency. This book breaks down the Russian adoption process and walks PAPs through the paperwork they will be filing. There are chapters on everything from what to pack to how to find a good pediatrician. We pulled chapters about our region and questions to ask doctors trip one out of the book and traveled with them. This is one book about adopting from Russia all PAPs need to read.
Written by Christina Stinsa

I just adopted my son from Russia and this book made everything so much easier! It should be a must have for all prospective adoptive families!!!

There is a lot of general information contained in one easy to navigate location. I do recommend it highly, especially for one who is just beginning the adoption process. The only problem is that things are changing so fast, that even though the book was recently updated, it is already somewhat out of date.

I find it amazing that Fraser can constantly deliver such a perfectly balanced combination of historical and romantic fiction. This is the fourth installment of the Flashman's adventures, but I found it to be the most intriguing, especially since it meticulously describes the start of the Crimean war and the battles of Alma and Balaclava with such cynicism. Consider the possibility that a pointless mistake in the communication of an order down the chain of command, combined with overzealous hand-waving by a messenger lead to the disastrous charge of the Light Brigade. Throw in with this some description of Russian countryside and daily life during the latter half 19th century: the horrid plight of the serf in stark comparison to the lavish existence of the noble caste. Mix it all up with the imperialist expansion of the Russian empire into Central Asia and you end up with a perfect recipe for epic historical fiction. However this would not be one of the famous Flashy files if it did not have equally interesting romantic encounters, troika chases through the snowy countryside, and suicidal missions to raid a Russian fort with Kirgiz rebels. To think that all this history, action and adventure occurs in a mere 300 pages is simply to good to be true. A truly great story-teller, Fraser has won me over and I can't wait to pick up the next chapter in his ruffian's adventures.

ROFL, LMAO funny fiction in a semi-plausible historical settings. Defames many of the figures you yawned over in World History back in 9th grade. Flash is a real man's man. Read the books, preferably in order.

Given that my introduction to the Flashmen series almost coincided with the tragic (although not unexpected) death of George Macdonald Frasier I have made it my news years resolution to let people know about his wonderful books.

They wouldn't be good without the main character Sir Harry Flashman VC; who without ever really meaning to became the most highly decorated solider of the Victorian Era. This is all of course just a byproduct of his attempts to save his own worthless hide, with the reader cheering him all the while. They are also outstanding in their great attention to historical accuracy backed up with a large amount of footnotes.

This particular installment "Flashman at the Charge" is the first purely military Flashman adventure since the first book in the series and it is wonderful. Flashman (and the author) are back to true form here. Flashman of course has no intention of going to fight "The Great Russian Bear" but his idiotic lovable wife gets him appointed as a kind of Master at Arms for one of Prince Albert's German nephews. It is then decided that the boy needs battlefield seasoning for eventual command one day. So it is for to the Crimea Flashy goes for a date with the light brigade. This is only half of the story.

Overall-I think it is the best of the series everything clicks without force or effort.

If you ever wondered what the opposite of James Bond might look like, George MacDonald Fraser's Harry Flashman might be a good character to look at: while superficially a heroic individual of great charm, Flashman is actually a coward and a cad and is unrepentant about these qualities. In the fourth volume of the series, Flashman at the Charge, Flashy is his same old self.

The title refers to the Charge of the Light Brigade, the famed fiasco for the British that was a highlight (or lowlight) of the Crimean War. As with the other Flashman books, this is a historical novel, and Flashman is right in the middle of history. As usual, as the book begins, he is trying to actually avoid fighting; with a clamor in England for a war with Russia, he knows that soon he will be pressed into battle due to his (undeserved) reputation as a military hero. Flashman doesn't mind being a coward; he just doesn't want other people to know it.

All his maneuvering actually just brings Flashman closer to the actual war and a series of wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time events will land him in the ill-fated Charge. It's no spoiler to say that he survives this battle (after all, he wouldn't be narrating the tale otherwise), but he does wind up a prisoner-of-war deep in Russia. This isn't so bad: as an officer, he is treated quite well at a palatial estate, and there's the owner's beautiful daughter to be considered. Unfortunately, he's not the only prisoner, and his fellow officer is intent on escape, especially after learning critical military intelligence. Of course, escape entails risk, putting Flashman in a pickle.

Going from England to Turkey to Russia to Afghanistan, Flashman at the Charge is another witty tale in a genre not known for its humor. Flashman may be a bad individual: cowardly, sexist and racist, but he is still a somehow likeable character, probably because he is not truly malicious. Indeed, compared to his military superiors, Flashman is almost a man of virtue. Almost. If you've enjoyed the other books in the series, this is another fine work to be enjoyed.

After reading "Flash for Freedom," with its nauseous blatant racism expressed through Flashman's perspective, I began to wonder why I was drawn to the series. Even in the Spanish picaresque novels, rogues tend to mature in their skullduggery. But I already had "Flashman at the Charge" in the exercycle pile, so I plunged in. I'm glad I did. This is the most successful episode yet, in terms of skillful plotting and literary devlopment. Why, it's so well written that I'm sure some Flash fanciers will be disappointed. It also spews most of Flashman's bile on Russians and British army officers, two subspecies of Homo sapiens that I have no investment in. The big surprise, however, is that our Harry at last seems to be affected by experience. Several times in the book, he reveals admiration for the noble and contempt for the ignoble. He actually admits to feeling an emotion close to friendship for two other men and honest intimidation in the face of a powerful woman. And he acknowledges sympathy, sneeringly of course, for the suffering of others! What's all this coming to? Is Flashman gonna yield to the temptation to do something honorable!?! I guess I'll have to read the next book to find out.

Nash does one of the best historical accounts of a massive and complicated battle that I have yet read,The extra time spent on the personalities involved and their relationships adds tremendously to the value of this book. Winning the battles but losing precious equipment and ground was a big part of the German retreat, Sadly the loss of life here is also extreme and the personal stories that delve into that loss are painful and foretell of worse to come.Filled with rare fantastic photos and first person accounts this is the definitive book on Korsun/Cherkassy. I hope that while survivors of battles like these are still living Nash will continue to create works like this that add so much to history and our understanding of WWII.

Col. Nash has written what I consider to be an epic on the war on the Ost (east) front of WWII. His plain language style and the relating of participants accounts are compelling and draw the reader in. He makes a theater of war not fully known in the west understandable. The story as depicted could be the basis for a screen play in what would be an epic film matching "Das Boot", "Saving Private Ryan", "Band of Brothers" and "Stalingrad" if Hollywood only had the courage to show it the way he presents it (sans politics). The strugle for survival is basic and one that everyone can understand and Col. Nash is an artist in painting that picture. This is the kind of book I love, one that gets into the day to day life of the soldier while giving the bigger picture. If anyone reads just a few books about the eastern front in WWII make this number one on your list!

Expert writing on a relatively little-known albeit vital battle on the Eastern Front in 1944. Military History does not get any better than Mr. Nash's account of the battle of the Cherkassy pocket!

"Hell's Gate" is a meticulously researched volume of a little known brutal winter battle on the Eastern Front during World War II. The writing is clear and unambiguous; the text is supplemented with many photographs, including previously unpublished photos made available to the author by participants of this battle.
There are some irritating production shortcomings, such as the occasional line dropping off at the bottom of a page and the seemingly inevitable misspellings throughout.
In all, I readily recommend this book.

Excellent book, with loads of anecdotes and personal accounts, at least for the German side. The book would have been even better if the author could have managed to obtain more Soviet first hand accounts as well, but even without them he does a good job of describing and assessing the Soviet side of the battle as well.

I read this book about twenty years ago, and the images never left me. I started using this book in my classroom when I taught Animal Farm about ten years ago. My students are always shocked that these events took place and how the people survived or didn't survive such austere conditions. The book is easy to read and understand.

When Hitler was asked about the possible negative consequences of the "final solution" in gassing all the remaining Jews in the world, he is reported to have responded by asking the question of "Who remembers the Armenians" who were killed by the "young Turks" at the end of the Ottoman Empire. While the numbers are in dispute, the reality is that over a million were killed outright or died of hunger during the campaign to exterminate the Armenians. But the real hidden holocaust took place over a decade later, when the Communist jackals running the "Evil Empire" in Moscow set about to eliminate the Ukrainians by systematic starvation, in far greater numbers than Hitler was able to accomplish with his ovens in concentration camps all over Europe.
Whoever Miron Dolot is, since he wrote this under a pseudonym for some reason, he lived a horror for many years that is incomprehensible for normal human beings. His description of the day-to-day struggle to exist under a system so evil that it boggles the imagination was very eloquent. Dolot talks about the neighbors who starved to death, families who engaged in cannibalism in order to survive, mothers committing suicide after the last of their children had died from malnutrition, frozen bodies stacked like firewood, roads littered with the remains of those who died trying to find a kernel of corn to ingest, and many other horrors that bring tears to your eyes. The Soviets did everything they could do to kill their opposition, including killing dogs and cats to keep them from becoming the last remaining food source for farmers who had no other option to stay alive. Even birds were shot from the trees to keep them from the starving peasants. But it was not limited to the Ukrainians; just ask the relatives of the millions of Chechens, Ingushetian's, and others who wanted independence and were rewarded with death in Soviet concentration camps called Gulags. Most of this story deals with a small Ukrainian village, but it is a microcosm of what happened in the Communist utopia under Stalin. Some of the stories from those who returned to the village after the horrors of being transported in cattle cars and escaped from the gulags are no different than the pictures of the same form of transport shown in many Holocaust movies.
But this story is far better than many of the holocaust films we have seen from Hollywood that concentrated on the one committed by Hitler. And why have we not seen this book on film to put all of the holocausts committed in the last century in context? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that McCarthyism still exists in its original form, when the communists controlled Hollywood in the 30's and apologists like Walter Duranty of the New York Times, who carries the label of "Stalin's Apologist" won a Pulitzer prize for his misreporting from Moscow about how great Stalin was. Ken Billingsley and his masterful book "Hollywood Party" shows that the real "blacklist" existed when loyal Americans veered from Moscow's party line, and explains Ronald Reagan's contempt for the communists who controlled his union until he won election to rid the union of these lice.
This is a great book. Hopefully someone like Mel Gibson will convert this to film for those who do not read, but are mislead by the Hollywood elite who condemn the USA and would have lasted two minutes under the Stalinist regime they glorify.

This book is a record of what some daily life was like in the Ukrainian villages during the Great Famine.
It is his memoirs, so it cant really be judged for facts and such, but it seems very intresting to read, and accurate.
The numbers couldt be a tiny bit too high, but it might actually have been that, but we will never know due to the destruction of any documents concerning mass death in The Famine.
I say its a good book, but would only recommend it too people intrested in Russian History specifically, because its such a specific and narrow read on a subject, from a first hand account, which usually dont know everything. There are better academic books out there documenting the famine well, but this is nontheless a good read and history.

Excellent first hand account of the attempts of collectivization under Stalin; attempts that met with little or no success. I earned and received a Bachelor of Arts in History and this subject was never covered as well as it should have been. The "less hidden" Holocaust always seems to take center stage in this society. I became interested in the subject due to the flight of my paternal grandparents from the affected area prior to the full onslaught being felt.

It seems impossible that, in a place comparable to the American Midwest for rich soil, that the people who live there, millions of them, starve to death in spite of the bounty of their land. But their Ukrainian farms are collectivized by orders from faraway Moscow. The food is shipped to wherever the authorities decide it will go. This is not a dry history of bushels shipped and numbers of private farms collectivized, but a compelling depiction of lives progressively ruined as an ideology takes over. Families who resist collectivation are demonized as dirty, selfish kulaks, and are punished. The promises to the communities sound good, early on, but the resulting devastation of the Ukrainianian people that results ultimately reveals that there was not much in it for the people who worked the land.

I have only read the version of Babi Yar by Anatoly Kuznetzov. I'm not sure it is the same book as the one described here by A. Anatoli. However the book I read in 1980 left an indelible impression. The horrors of human cruelty and survival instincts of the oppressed are portrayed very well by the author especially since it is being told from the viewpoint of a 12 year old. As someone else commented; it is not for the squeamish.

I first read this book in high school as a shelf clearing library rat. It was not recommended, it was not widely known, it just sat on a shelf gathering dust. As far as I could tell, I was the first person to check this book out of my high school's library....books used to have cards glued to the back page where you signed your name...this one had no signatures. I read "Babi Yar" 3 times in the next 2 weeks and was stunned at the inhumanity of people towards people. I actually had trouble sleeping for a while. I didn't run across this book again for another 25 years. It kind of jumped at me from the shelf at my local library. It offered the same brutal emotional clubbing at 41 that I had experienced at 16. No different. How horrible can we actually be as humans? Pretty damn horrible it appears. The progessive rape of Kiev (et al) by Stalin, the Nazis, and Stalin AGAIN is a mostly overlooked story. This one tells it quite well. Music lovers should listen to Al Stewart's "Roads to Moscow" for a somewhat hurried reference.

This is by far the most significant piece ever written about the Holocaust. Amazingly, the author was a KGB agent while writing the book. He died under very mysterious circumstances.

It is amusing that one of the reviewers questions the authenticity of the story.

I recommend reading books by Elie Wiesel and Imre Kertesz as well. Read Yevgeny Yevtushenko's great poem too.

I am reluctant to believe that this novel is all true. It is sold as fiction, placed in libraries in fiction, and even teh Library of Congress lists it as such. Whether or not, it remains that this is an intruiging novel. I read it when I was a senior in high school back in 1996, and it has always been in the back of my mind.

Read it, research it, form your own opinions.

Some questions remain that I wonder about. Why were there no forensic tests or archaeological digs? Surely there is nothing to hide anymore. I would really be interested in reading further into this story and seeing what information can be gathered using science.

I am sorry for the above commenter's obvious pain my initial review caused. I was, I believe, researching in the worng way.

I read this book in the original Russian. I could not put it down until I read the whole thing. As far as truthfulness I have absolutely no doubt, since his accounts are the same that I have heard from my own grandparents who fought in and survived in the war. To the reviewer below - Jeannette DuPree (South Carolina), what do the modern historians doubt? The thousands of victims (including the immediate members of my family) of German brutality? It's revisionist lying.

I was impressed by the courage shown by the women in this novel. I read it as part of my own research on Chernobyl. I have relatives living in the Ukraine and decided to write a mystery story with the Chernobyl disaster as a backdrop Chernobyl Murders. Irene's novel helped me understand the victims in what would eventually become the exclusion zone more deeply.

Irene Zabytko in this book presented the consequences of the worst civilian nuclear disaster in the world in a "humanely-digestible" way.The reader is initially reluctant to start reading this book, but later on , the author makes it more plausible and presents the deeply human feelings of the victims. Excellent work, Ms Zabytko!!

A short book, that can be read in one day, The Sky Unwashed is a highly important book in two respects. Foremost, this is one of the first full pictures we got about what really happened to the residents in the Chernobyl region and Kiev in April, 1986, albeit in fiction, but borne out now in articles and TV documentaries. Secondly, the lyrical beauty and masterful storytelling should elevate this novel to the stature of high literature. It is almost a year since this book came out and I read it, but it still haunts me. There are several themes interwoven and coalescing in the overriding struggle for life versus death's inevitability, the largeness of the nuclear accident, its cataclysmic proportions versus the helplessness of mankind or of the individual, of course another metaphor for the big Soviet Union and the communist ideal versus the individual. Although ironically the political and scientific disasters are of mankind's creation.

The novel plays out in snapshots: We see people working at the factory before the nuclear accident because it looks like a better life or the best alternative; the aftermath of the accident, the government putting people on buses in a hurry, telling them they can go home in a few days, but to leave everything behind; a skin rash or a burn or a breathing problem, just that, a denial of radiation sickness; Marusia and her friends planting a garden.

What can a person do when faced with a moral dilemma over which they seem to have no control and from which there is no escape, where it doesn't matter whether you are a hero or a coward, because you will die anyway? The novel asks this in several ways and on several levels, and the answers are as different as the personalities involved.

The grandmother Marusia, her daughter-in-law Zosia, and two grandchildren crowd the hospital in Kiev, where her son, Zosia's husband, lays dying, people crammed into hallways for weeks fight over blankets and food and toys, the train station is stampeded. Zosia escapes the hospital for awhile to watch a parade, to look at clean streets and flowers, and to try pretend that it's all a bad dream, even while plotting to get her children out of Kiev. Marusia takes a different route. She and other elderly women friends go back to their village and live life on their own terms with the time they have left. This is where the novel really takes its philosophical wing and its song. It is the heart and soul of the book.

As the sky becomes dirty and unnaturally clouded over Chernobyl, a society's vision gradually becomes clear and unclouded. One makes the inevitable connection to the collapse of the Soviet Union a few years later. We will never really know for sure, but the issue of handling nuclear energy safely is one that is relevant to everyone on the planet.

I must admit, I was initially drawn to this book because I myself derive from 100% Ukrainian lineage. As such, Zabytko's subject matter interested me. I thumbed through the book and thought "Hey, I've gotta read this."
The story centers around the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of April 26th, 1986. The fallout from this tragedy is said to have been the equivalent of eight Hiroshimas! Yet, as though the tragedy in itself were not bad enough, the government at that time chose to suppress information to the residents of villages surrounding Chernobyl, and to the nation at large. Folks were kept in the dark concerning the actual extent (and far-reaching effects) of the radioactive contamination. As a result, much PREVENTABLE damage was done to people at the time, and even to the children that would be born to those who survived.
The Unwashed Sky focuses on the situation facing the widow Marusia Petrenko, her son, daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren. By the time they flee their village of Starylis, it is too late. Their lives will never be the same.
Marusia decides to return to Starylis. She is not even aware that it has been declared a "forbidden zone"... all that she knows is that this is her village, the only home she's ever known, and since everything dear has been torn from her, this feeling of "home" may be the only thing she can yet embrace as her own.
She returns, and finds that her only companion is an old mangy cat. She keeps a perpetual fire, hoping that the smoke from her chimney will tell others of her presence. And slowly, some of her old friends do begin to trickle back. One by one, these old women (and one man), drawn by the same sense of a need to belong to their beginnings, return to rebuild their lives.
These tenacious Starylis "babysi" band together and draft a letter of demands that causes the Chernobyl officials to cede to their requests, and admit to certain wrongdoings, however late in the day! (Even then, they grant the women's wishes only because of how good this will look in the newspapers).
Zabytko paints a sensitive, touching picture of this time of loneliness and desolation, of undeserved and unwarranted hardship... a time when even the dirt rejected seed and the water tasted of metal.
I loved the authentic Ukrainian vernacular running through the book... I could hear my own grandmother clearly.
A wonderful testimony of the enduring power of the human spirit and its will to survive... a point made all the more sobering when one considers the non-fictional source of the author's inspiration.
In an interview with Rebecca Brown, Irene Zabytko said: "I hope that anyone who reads it comes away with the feeling that despite the cultural exoticisms, we're still part of one planet, and the endurance of the human spirit persists in all."
I think she succeeds in this.

The 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster scared the world witless. We all worried what might happen to us. But what became of those who lived there? It would be a mistake to read Irene Zabytko's The Sky Unwashed as a documentary novel, because, despite its commonplace beginning, it tells its story with characters who come to matter to us for their own sakes, not for what they can tell us about Chernobyl. Even so, Zabytko, a Ukrainian-American born in Chicago, writes from experience as well as imagination, for she has relatives and friends in Chernobyl, has spent time with them there and has taken their stories into herself.

The novel opens with a too-journalistic narrative of a Ukrainian family's dispirited life, pre-disaster, in a village where people seem to be going through the motions of life in a dying culture. Weddings are not celebrated festively so much as mockingly, less cheer than jeer. For young people, working at the nearby Chernobyl plant offers a chance to escape from ancestral poverty. Older ones, even in the gentler Gorbachev times, take a different view. They've lived through Stalin's engineered Ukraine famine; war; oppression. "The old women in babushkas who kept the old ways alive with their icons and litanies ... knew that the hard times never end," the prologue says.

The Petrenko family represents both attitudes. Old Marusia lives with her weak, dull son, whose wife, Zosia, nurses a vital spark that leads her into unhappy affairs in search of vibrant life. We don't like Zosia much at first. Irritable, nasty, she appears selfish despite having two young children. But after Chernobyl blows, her overbearing ill-temper and sharp tongue come in handy when the radiation-poisoned family encounters sneering incompetence at a Kiev hospital. Zosia bribes and browbeats her way to medical treatment for her husband; of course, we fear for those who lack such survival skills.

Yet it's the aged Marusia, with her traditional, lumbering ways, who carries the novel into our hearts. She goes along with the evacuation because there's no choice. When in the ensuing chaos she finds herself alone, though, she realizes that home is the only place to go. Arriving there after a hard journey, "She sank to her knees on the ground, and she made the sign of the cross. She uttered a prayer of thanks to be back on the land where her mother and grandmother had lived."

How Marusia survives in a deserted, radioactive village where the water tastes "like coins" is harrowing and fascinating. It's the center of the novel, much as the primacy of home and religious faith is Marusia's center. Eyes itching and red, body aching strangely, she goes to her church to ring its deafening bells every day. She tills her garden, aids a dying cat. Loneliness tries to crush her spirit. A few other residents return, bringing relief from isolation but also moral dilemmas and the pain of an old wrong that Marusia is now expected to forgive. She leads some villagers to an effective (but not very convincing) showdown with Soviet officials over basic demands. (It should be noted that this is a strong-women novel -- the men all tend to be weak, stupid or dead. Is that necessary to show that women are strong?)

The author resists any temptation to lard her story with lectures on the evils of nuclear power. A lesser writer would have introduced a character whose job was to pontificate instructively on radiation dangers and communist inefficiency (a lethal combination, for sure). Instead, Zabytko concentrates on showing what happens to her characters and how they respond, in their human particularity, to the terrors they face. Incidents affect them, and move us, without any sense of piling-on or wallowing in pathos. There are even mica-glints of humor.

Mainly we're left with astonished pride at human endurance, coupled with anguish and anger at what the novel shows so unflinchingly without preaching: that by accepting dangerous technologies, we risk irreversibly poisoning not only our bodies but also our very ground of being -- land, home, family.

This is truly a special book. What comes through these pages are not just words and stories, but a real taste of the light and fire of the Baal Shem Tov. As I read it I had the sense that the book was a true vehicle for transmission. I was also touched by the effort of the author as I read the book. It is obvious that putting the book together was for him an act of service, and the author's feeling for the stories and teachings comes through clearly.

Beginning with his first book, "Jewish Spiritual Practices," Reb Yitzhak has written books that convey some of the deepest teachings of great Chassidic rebbes -- in this case the founder of Hasidism, the holy Baal Shem Tov himself. Written with loving care, humility and the utmost respect to the Besht, Reb Yitzhak has created not just another collection of stories of this charismatic Jewish leader, but rather a unique text -- somewhat approximating a scripture -- that uses isolated stories about the Besht to tell the overarching story of not only the Besht's life, but also his spiritual path, a teaching that has long eluded our generation. Indeed, in "The Life And Fire of the Baal Shem Tov," Buxbaum succeeds in bringing the Besht alive in the spiritual imaginations of his readers -- transporting them, as it were, into the lost world of Eastern European Jewry and setting them at the feet of this great Master. This is a holy book that belongs in the library of every Jew who hungers for spiritual sustenance.

I highly recommend this book. An intimate portrayal of the Baal Shem Tov's life. You will finish the book and want to start all over again. This book will inspire the reader to examine his/her own life and how he/she can make improvements. Words cannot fully describe the impact this book will have.

loved this book. gives you a great understanding of the life of the Baal Shem Tov and what his vision was.

A profound and moving book on many levels. Israel ben Eliezer, the Baal Shem Tov or 'Besht' was the founder of the Hassidic movement among Eastern European Jews in the 1700's, which survives to this day in Israel, the United States and elsewhere.

The author says: "...I want it to be a book in which the Besht is alive", and: "the main goal is spiritual understanding." He succeeds in both, through the care in which he presents and orders stories about the Besht's life. One can also see how the spiritual approach of the Baal Shem Tov resonates back through two millennia to Hillel, and beyond, and forward two centuries, and beyond, to include the late Rabbi Shlomo Carlson, Yitzhak Buxbaum's own Rebbe.

There is another side to this work, perhaps not intended. One can also read it as a lesson in how the spiritual, cultural and traditional intellectual resources of an oppressed people can be drawn upon for their emancipation and liberation -- here spiritual -- or can be turned in many directions, not all for liberation. Looked at from this side, this is a very contemporary book, and could interest readers from many different traditions including from the Caribbean, Africa, Latin America and perhaps Tibet, or others, who struggle with parallel issues.

For Jews, and others, far from the world in this book, or who imagine ourselves to be so, there is nothing wrong with discovering how to turn a bowl of kasha or borscht into a holy meditation; or smoking a pipe (of tobacco) into an ascent; and perhaps being able to use these in turn to develop compassion or love of people.

The Baal Shem Tov's natural successor, it would appear from the book, would have been his daughter Edel. I wonder how things would have changed if she had been accepted as such.

[Written in honor of the memory of Aimee Cesaire: poet, philosopher, politician of Martinique and elsewhere; died April 17, 2008]