Ukraine Books

At first glance Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge suggests it might be quite a light book, an easy read, a period piece set in the mid-nineteenth century. This would be wrong. Master Georgie is no safe tale of country house manners, of marriages imagined by confined, embroidering young women. Beryl Bainbridge's Master Georgie is anything but a tale of such saccharine gentility.

Master Georgie is a surgeon and photographer, and the book is cast in six plates - photographic plates, not chapters. Death figures throughout. From start to finish morbidity crashes into the lives of the book's characters. We begin with Mr Moody, dead in a brothel bed, his host of minutes before in shock. Later we move to the Crimean War, where the carnage is graphic, extensive and apparently random. And even then individuals find their own personal ways of adding insult and injury to the suffering.

The book uses multiple points of view. We see things Master Georgie's way. Myrtle, an orphan he takes in, adds her perspective. The fussy geologist, Dr Potter, imprints his own version of reality. And still there are less than explained undercurrents, undeclared motives which affect them all. Thus, overall, Master Georgie is a complex and ambitious novel. Though it is set in a major war, the backdrop is never allowed to dominate. The characters experience the consequences of conflict and register their reactions, but we are never led by the nose trough the history or the geography of the setting.

But we also never really get to know these people. Myrtle, perhaps, has the strongest presence. She has a slightly jaundiced, certainly pragmatic approach to life. But even she finds the privations of wartime tough. Why the characters of Master Georgie are all so keen to offer themselves as support for the war effort is an aspect of the book that never fully revealed itself. And ultimately this was my criticism of Beryl Bainbridge's book. While the overall experience was both rewarding and not a little shocking, I found there was insufficient delineation between the characters and their differing motives. The beauty of the prose, however, more than made up for any shortcoming. The language created the mixed world of mid-nineteenth century politeness and juxtaposed this with the visceral vulgarities of soldiering and the general struggle of life. This rendered Master Georgie a complex, moving and quite beautiful book.

I found this a very disturbing book of the type that you like against your own best instincts. I'm not saying it's bad, no. I'm just saying that if you want a nice, friendly, romantic (within reason) war book, look somewhere else. Children shouldn't read this, but it's good. Forgive me if I'm making no sense, but this is a very tricky book to review.

Master Georgie is a novel set in the time of the Crimean War. Through the eyes of three people close to Master Georgie, Myrtle, a girl believed to be Georgie's sister, Dr. Potter, a geologist and Pompey Jones, the photography assistant, we follow him from Liverpool to the battlefield of the Crimean War.

This way to write about a person and his happenings is well known through Ian Pears An Instance of the Fingerpost. And can be a perfect way to keep the readers interest and also the readers capability to live with the story. But Beryl Bainbridge do not master this art in this book. The language is too flat, without feelings, and the plots are sometimes too cryptical to be understood. I had to read several parts more than once to be able to understand what it all really was about, and to understand which lenses where used.

Still the book has some good parts, among them are the battlefield scenes. And I also like the way Bainbridge use the meaning of the photography, to let us see snapshots of Master Georgie's life, using other people as lenses, as cameras.

The book is a short one, less than 200 pages, and the surprising ending helps to give meaning to the story.

Britt Arnhild Lindland

Geroge Hardy, a surgeon and amateur photographer, discovers his father dead in the bed of another woman and hastens to bring the body home before his mother learns of it. Three people help with this task, and their lives are irrevocaly changed because of it.

The story is told through the eyes of those three people close to Master Georige. The first is Myrtle, a young orphan who is accepted and raised by the Hardy family. She immediately falls in love with Georgie, a love that will carry her from the streets of Liverpool to the battlefields of the Crimean War. Next is Pompey Jones, a young street boy who helps move the body of George's father and then discovers George's passion for young men. The last is Dr. Potter, a family friend who follows George all the way to the Battle of Inkermann, never understanding George's aversion to women or why he wants to attach himself to a unit during the awful war. Through their eyes, we watch George change from a young doctor in England dealing with his father's troublesome death to the hardened field doctor trying to save lives during a time of war.

This is a fantastic historical novel, with some of the most descriptive war scenes I've read in quite some time. Bainbridge makes you feel the confusion, fear and dread that the soldiers faced both due to battle and due to disease. At the same time, she shows how one life can effect others, either for better or for worse. A highly engrossing novel.

Beryl Bainbridge has to be one of the greatest of all English authors. All of her books are superb and Master Georgie, her third book of historical fiction, is different, but no less superb, than the two preceeding. I think Master Georgie has not been praised quite highly enough because its subject matter may be less familiar to Americans than Bainbridge's two previous historicals. As a European, however, Master Georgie is definitely my favorite. It is quieter and more subtle, but I think it has much more emotional depth.

Bainbridge is always a little cryptic with her subject matter and Master Georgie is no exception. Don't let this put you off the book, though--the undercurrents of energy and intrigue make this short book riveting and well worth anyone's time.

The protagonist, Master Georgie, is actually George Hardy, a Victorian English dissolute and surgeon who, one day, decides to pack up his family and head for Turkey. Although his intentions are to provide medical care to the wounded during the Crimean war, we all know things rarely go as planned. Suffice it to say that Murphy's Law holds just as true for Master Georgie as it does for us.

The battlefield scenes are some of the best I have ever read, not surprising with Bainbridge. Although the scenes are brutal and sometimes even gruesome, this marvelous author has managed to infuse them with a sardonic wit that rivals anything I have ever read. Bainbridge is true to her subject matter in these scenes. Bainbridge chooses to forgo romanticism in favor of the reality of confusion and futility that surely must have existed on the battlefields of the Crimea. Lest you think she's making fun of her subjects, let me tell you she most assuredly is not. She is compassionate, but she wisely keeps that compassion from coloring the facts. I think she is simply interpreting events with her own brand of intelligence and irony.

Master Georgie can meander at times, but Bainbridge has even this meandering under complete control. She also tempers it with vivid details. We really feel as if we are reading an actual eyewitness account to the war.

Master Georgie is a short book, really more of a novella than a novel, and you can easily read it in one sitting if you so desire. Don't let its length fool you, though. Master Georgie is a dark book and one that really packs a punch. It is stylish, sophisticated and sardonic. In short, it is a book that is worthy of all the praise it has garnered.

I wouldn't rave about this book, though it was a good read, and the author succeeded in making the wartime experiences of Elia seem very real indeed. In fact for the first 50 pages I thought I was reading a non-fiction book - how I missed the "A Novel" on the cover is beyond me. From the time I discovered this was a novel and not a true story, I lost my enthusiasm for the book. I found the descriptions and details of the Montreal characters unconvincing and trite, especially as they compared to the very good characterization of Elia. Finally, the end was most unsatisfying - I won't go into detail as I don't want to spoil it for others...

I found this book entrancing and difficult to put down. The relentless spirit of Elia is well captured. Characters have both depth and feeling, putting you center stage of the turmoil of their time.

A well structured and easy reading book with an ageless quality similar to Anne Frank.

The story of Elia and Anna follows predictably along, and even Elia's journey to find her through Ukraine and Poland had no hidden surprises. But, some of the descriptions of life in the death camps - of the Jewish workers and their survival of places like Treblinka - were very revealing. I have been to many of the places in the book, have read a lot about the holocaust, but some of the details presented in this book are new, or at least have been described in a new way to me. Buy it used.

"Goretsky lay still, his face a bloody pulp, unrecognizable. The solider swung his boot and kicked the motionless figure. Goretsky's lifeless body flopped like a sawdust doll, then settled facedown into the earth." (p. 30) This is the least detailed sentence I could find in this book. The rest is absoultely graphic and really reaches out to my heart. Elia is the main character and he is one of the few who survived the massacre at Babi Yar, where thousands of Jews were slaughtered by Germans. Elia returns from Babi Yar when he finds Anna, his wife gone. She had gone to another city for their daughter's safety. It is Elia's love for his wife, Anna, that keeps him going despite the winter cold, starvation, injuries and Germans looking for him. Years later when it is all over, Elia tells his story to Liz and Cia who sells objects at a flea market. Elia met them both when he discovered the locket,in a box full of jewerly, that was once a gift to his wife. Liz and Cia set out to find Anna upon Elia's request. Very hopeful book. Throughout the book, I only hoped that Elia would find the one thing he had always loved, Anna. This book has left me pondering about how Elia never once gave up and that showed such great courage, hope, faith and true love for Anna. I would reccomend this book to anyone who seeks truly moving stories.

I picked up this book after many people recommended it to me. I was sorely disappointed.

The story starts out pretty good. Elia, a holocaust survivor and all around good guy, has come across a locket that he gave to his long-lost wife back during World War II. He's been searching for her for years, and this is the biggest clue he's found yet. The owners of the flea market stand he found it at offer to conduct a search to find the people who they bought it from. Meanwhile, Elia starts telling him his story. The search and the story telling continue over many weeks.

The ending is the real disappointment of this book. It's overly sympathetic and formulaic. It reminds me of a badly written chain email designed to make you examine your own life and how good it is compared to the story of some poor, downtrodden man or woman. I felt almost manipulated. As opposed to a believable, well thought out ending, we're subjected to something that was obviously designed to make the Harlequin romance crowd get teary eyed and introspective. It made me distrust what I considered the good parts of the book - Elia's description of the horrors of the concentration camp. If the ending was an obvious ploy to pull heartstrings, I can't fully trust that the rest of the book wasn't doing the same.

The character development is flat. People are either good or bad, not a great design in a book that at one high point has Elia explaining that the reason he can't blanketly hate all the camp guards is because to hate them would mean he'd have to hate all Germans, and if he hated all Germans he'd have to hate the Poles that helped the Germans, and so on and so forth. The two subplots running through the book seem to be there more for filler than anything else. Why spend several chapters reviewing the history of one particular friend of Elia's? Sure, it's somewhat interesting, but once again I have my suspicions that it was only included to have yet one more sad story for us to cry over.

Overall, I had a very strong bad reaction to this book. I felt ripped off and manipulated. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

I actually live and work here in Kiev and I purchased The Bradt Travel Guide to help me plan some upcoming day trips as well as to get some updates on places of interest here in Kiev. And while the guide was obviously well researched for the first edition it seems to me that the 2nd edition was a rush job or maybe just lacking in its design.

For example Bradt says that it's possible to travel on $75 a day - okay granted one should assume that amount is closer to $100 a day with inflation in the Euro and the cheapening of the dollar. The problem at least in Kiev - a very cosmopolitan city, is that many of the restaurants mentioned will cost you between $70 and $100 for a nice meal. By the way Georgian wine is very good and is available locally for about $8 a bottle so a glass of wine in a restaurant should not cost more than about $7 - my tip for those who read this! Also the local beers are all very nice and cost next to nothing - about $1 a bottle. There was not an effort to break down restaurants by cost range as was done with the hotels - most other guides I've used in the past do this and I find it really helpful. I was hoping for some new restaurant finds! And any restaurant that accepts major credit cards is in this class so beware if you're using this guide. Also, my specific need was for places to see that are close by but there was very little in that section for Kiev.

Overall, I think there are better guides although not quite as new. One very good point is the availability of apartments at reasonable prices. With public transportation very reasonable - that means cheap!, all you really need to know is what bus/tram to hoop on to get you to either the nearest Metro or somewhere central like Independence Square.

If you aren't sure about coming to Kiev/Kyiv, I want to tell you that I highly recommend it - the city is beautiful and the people are very nice. Ukraine is a big country and also very nice - I've been to the Black sea and to the Carpathian mountains so far and enjoyed them both although for very different reasons.

Want proof that Bradt's got Ukraine figured out? Look at the relative absence of other travel guides for this fascinating country. Lonely Planet does one, but then again, they'd probably publish a guide to the Moon. Rough Guides, Fodor, Frommer, Cadogan, Footprint... nada. Bradt's got the market on Ukraine, and there's a reason for that: This guide is really good.

It is a travel guide in the truest sense of the word. There's a definite emphasis on pragmatic travel information, at the slight expense of cultural and historical context that some readers particularly enjoy. It's not a text-rich cultural guide, a la Rough Guides, but a directory of good places to spend your time and money. The best part? It's accurate and authentic. You have the locals in your hand with this book, and you're armed with the kind of information that will make your visit to Ukraine rich, rewarding and real. The book leaves most of the historic context for you to discover on your own, but it points you in the right direction so you're not overwhelmed. There's a 100-page introduction to the country that is particularly good. The authors have written this section as something of a "culture shock" essay intended to give you the real, irreverent portrait of the country, with plenty of concise information that makes you feel like you're ready to relocate to Ukraine. They've painted the picture perfectly.

The truly startling city of Lviv, former capital of Polish Galicia, gets special treatment, and should be on every itinerary in Ukraine. Visitors from crystal-clear Scandinavia or baroque central Europe may wonder what all the Lviv hype is about. Here's the thing: It's not just about frilly architecture. It's about recognizing that Lviv was once an enormously diverse, poly-ethnic, Austro-Hungarian frontier town, and it's essentially intact. Prague may be cleaner, but it's also more homogeneous. Lviv's position on the margins, rather than in the center of everything, is the source of its intrigue. Go there.

There's more to this difficult country than Kiev and Chernobyl. Get out and see the places preserved in a pre-communist time warp (such as Lviv) before the word gets out and they become another stop on the expensive Prague, Krakow, Budapest, Vienna tour.

I bought book for forthcoming trip to Ukraine. Before packing it looked at index and was disappointed to find that the last page, 439 was wrinkled and had a hole 2 thumbs wide at bottom next to binding. I had paid more for a new book from Amazon and found this in worst shape than some used books I had ordered in past. Asfor reviewing book itself, I will do that upon returning from trip.
JoAnn Aviel

The "Bradt" Ukraine book helped to make my decision to journey to Italy, Austria, Croatia, Hungary and Slovenia with the information from my "Lonely Planet" book. I have used Lonely Planet before and found it great with pictures of what can be expected at the various destinations. The Bradt Ukraine had a few pages of mediocre pictures in the front and compared to my reading of the destinations I have chosen to travel to, failed to fire my imagination - which is a terrible pity because I am of Ukrainian heritage myself.

I'm heading to Kiev, southern Ukraine and the Crimea this fall. This book has been a great introduction to the history of the region; I'll definitely bring it with me on the trip!

Although some of the information is outdated in places like Kyiv, great insight to some of the other places. I wish she had more to say about the Western (Traditional Ukrainian) half, but still well worth it.

this is a really good book about Ukraine. It talks about everything you can imagine-customs, laws, people, even jokes. Its very accurate and definately brought back some memories for me. If you are traveling to Ukraine and want some insights into ukrainian lifestyle and people this is the book for you.

This book is fine if you are just starting out. I found it useful but you'll need more after this. There are many areas where even the un-educated will realized topics are outdated.

CULTURE SHOCK: UKRAINE ranks as one of the best installments of the Culture Shock series. Straightforward and very thorough, it gave this American reader a helpful introduction to Ukrainian culture. Written by an American, Meredith Dalton, who lived in Kyiv for some time, the book tells expatriates what they need to know for a smooth transition to living and working in Ukraine.

Ukraine is a very different country from the U.S., and things that Westerners would see as corruption and inefficiency are normal matters there. Dalton is very frank about how to deal with Ukrainian bureaucracy, how to maintain patience, and how to refrain from comparing everything to life back home. While she emphasizes to the reader that Ukraine may be a difficult and sometimes infuriating country for outsiders, she is always respectful of the Ukrainian culture and way of life. This is one of the few books in the Culture Shock series that are so admirably dedicated to preventing culture shock.

Meredith Dalton also tackles the delicate issue of ethnicity in Ukraine, and explains how, for some people, the country is polarised into a Ukrainian-speaking half and a Russian-speaking half. However, she also shows how the country is in most respects a united culture in spite of language differences.

I felt the section on Ukrainian cuisine could have been a bit more in-depth. Also, the book is geared towards future residents of Kyiv or Lviv, the two cities to which foreigners are most likely to move. As a result, Ukrainian village life is hardly mentioned. However, the meagreness of these topics left Dalton ample room for discussion of Ukrainian custom, etiquette, and superstition.

All in all, CULTURE SHOCK: UKRAINE is an essential resource for anyone vacationing in Ukraine or moving there. One of the best Culture Shock guides.

This book is somewhat helpful but hopelessly outdated. Ukraine is changing rapidly and this book just is not of much use at all! See if you can buy it used, but don't waste your money on a new copy.

It's hard to judge a travel guide before the actual travel, but this guide is verbose and useful. There are recommended places to stay and good tips what to see.

I gave this book as a gift to a family member who was going to the Ukraine, and we found it to be very informative and useful.

This little book is packed with information. I would say this book is essential if you know nothing about Ukraine, and very useful if you know some Ukrainian or Russian. Despite the fact that almost everyone in Ukraine speaks Russian, and in some areas they speak only Russian, all the sample translations in this book are in Ukrainian. It would be useful to have both Ukrainian and Russian translations in the book.

I recently used this book on a 2 week trip to Ukraine, we spent most of our time in Eastern Ukraine and a few days in Kiev. The coverage of Eastern Ukraine is sparse, to say the least. Kharkov, for instance, is a huge city but there is very little coverage. The practical information that is presented is useful, however, I feel that it has a very negative connotation (watch out! this country is dangerous! kids will hate it!) and the author approaches it with more fear/caution than sense of adventure and exploration.

The historical/cultural information that is presented is interesting to read, and the author makes some great recommendations for future reading about Ukraine.

I'm glad that we had this book with us, but we found the Bradt guide much, much more detailed and useful for use while in Ukraine.

This is probably the worst travel guide I've ever read. It completely misses the point of travel in Ukraine. It's constantly referring to the sub-standard quality of virtually everything and trashes all but three or four destinations. I can't tell you how many times I read descriptions of places I've visited an scoffed at how offhandedly they were dismissed.

People don't visit Ukraine for a relaxing week of 5-star hotels and Western European-style tourism. If not looking for family or engaging in business, people come to Ukraine for a decidedly different tourist experience. Yes, it's an experience that is a little rough around the edges. But it's also filled with cheap and convenient travel, incredibly hospitable and authentic people, and a surprisingly rich and diverse country that mixes snowy birch forests and rocky sub-tropical beaches, as well as European and Soviet history. However, this book is content to write off entire regions of Ukraine.

The LP folks were recently back in Ukraine doing research for the new edition, but I'm not all that hopeful much of this can be salvaged. Go with the Bradt Guide, it's the best guide to Ukraine available.

I must say that I've found Linda Hodges' guide to Ukraine very helpful and a pleasure to read.The fact that it is a bit "rose colored" does not detract from its value as a travel guide. While it is true that Russian is much more prevelant in the eastern part of Ukraine, it does not follow that Russian culture is. Many Ukrainians in the east are simply Russian speakers, and do not consider themselves Russian. No Russian would ever point that out to an American, and it is something that takes time to understand and appreciate.

I would highly recommend this travel guide to anyone planning a visit to Ukraine. Linda Hodges and George Chumak have upgraded this new edition. Definitely worth getting!

A single trip to Ukraine hardly qualifies one as an expert on the Ukrainian or Russian languages.Yet, this is exactly what some reviewers pretend to be. Linda Hodges' travel guide on Ukraine, while it has some shortcomings, is definitely full of valuable facts, and comes from the heart of the author, which is more than can be said about the reviewer's attack on the Ukrainian language and therefore its culture. To call the Ukrainian language "pointless" is quite an outrageous thing to say. While it is true that little Ukrainian was heard in the Eastern part of Ukraine ten years ago, the situation is quite different today, where one hears Ukrainian everywhere - in the streets, in schools, in government offices, even though Russian is still considered far more dominant in many areas. The use of the Ukrainian language is growing every year. One can't help but be somewhat surprised to see the obvious hostility towards Ukrainians. Why travel to the fascinating land of Ukraine with this kind of attitude? Perhaps one should confine his interests to travel in Russia, an equally fascinating country, where the Ukrainian language would not be such a threat.

The updated version is even better. The kinks are mostly out. Linda Hodges' love for her beloved Ukraine still shines on every page of this very upbeat and somewhat rose-colored travel guide. It is the kind of Ukraine that you will surely find, if you go around a few unscrupulous people - in airports, taxis, restaurants or at border check-points. If you're lucky enough to have someone invite you to a private home, especially in small towns or villages, you may experience that legendary Ukrainian hospitality and the wonderful food that goes with it! And in spite of what one has heard, Ukrainian-speaking Ukrainians don't live only in Halychyna; you will find them far to the east and south, and proud of their ancient heritage. Often, they will start out pretending to be Russians, but will end up singing those unforgettable Ukrainian songs with you, their eyes getting misty. Such is the case with most of the so-called "Russian" Ukrainians. Even true ethnic Russians will join in, since most Russian songs don't quite measure up. They like to be accepted and acknowleged, and forgiven for not being more Ukrainian, and they're impressed by foreign visitors who want to know about Ukraine. The Soviet system has taught them that Ukrainians live only in villages and speak a Russian "dialect" called Ukrainian, so they've always tried to hide their true origins. Unlike the hard-boiled approach to Ukraine travel by the politically over-correct Let's Go guide, Linda Hodges goes the more mellow route. You'll be seduced by her charm, make no mistake about it. Rozumijite?

This was a decent book, although it gave me no tips on traveling to the eastern part of Ukraine which is mostly Russian culture and the language does differ from Russian and Ukrainian. My friend who is Russian pointed that out to me. I had also liked to have seen the book give a better guide to pronouncing words as I had trouble with some. All in all, I found all the information to still be of use to me.

Hey, Devil's advocate. I think you can see that Mr Marsh doesn't actually state that the Riga murders were made by the Galician Division and that you are the fool for thinking this. The Galician division was a bunch of murderous butchers like the rest of the SS. This book tries to make a positive case for them and it is unsurprising as it was written by the son of one of their members. Members of the Galician Division were not charged with any war crimes after the war and many of them settled in the United Kingdom, as did Michael Melnyk's father, but this does not mean that they didn't commit any atrocities. At the end of the Second World War many people escaped prosecution in an attempt to merely move onwards much like the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa after the fall of apartheid. No-one would would assume that certain white South African police officers were not responsible for brutal crimes merely because they weren't charged.

I had a chance to read "The Battle" and basically it is one of the best books about Ukrainian 14 SS Galicia Division. From years of extensive research the author has developed an amazing collection of facts about this famous Hitler's foreign SS division. There are tons of new information, battle facts, biographies of the combatants and history of the division itself. However, the most appealing and unforgetting for me were the illustrations of this book. Mr Melnyk collected thousands of never seen photos of Galicia Division fighters. From my own research on foreign divisions, I have never seen those photographs and never have come across to such an interesting and informative book.

Mr Melnyk sheds a new light on the history of this division.

I highly recommend it to anyone of is interested in Ukrainian military studies and history of world war II.

5 stars!

Michael Melnyk has done an outstanding job in his composition of this magnificent book, only those who are ill-informed or ill-intentioned can possibly criticize its substance. His comprehensive research regarding this topic is unparalleled, so if you really want to understand and know the truth then buy this book, it is worth every penny. Correct reading leads to correct knowledge which leads to correct understanding.

It's no surprise to find out that Michael Melnyk's father was in the Galician Division of the Waffen SS. Anyone who knows and understands anything at all about the SS, whether the Allgemeine(general) SS or the Waffen(weapons bearing) SS will know about the mindless, evil brutality they meted out wherever they were based.

We've all seen the torture and massacre of innocent civilians by the SS throughout the second world war - jews beaten to death on the streets of Riga with iron bars, the massare at Oradour Sur Glane in France, the massacre at Sant'anna in Tuscany - and the Galician Division were no different to any other Waffen SS unit.

That no member of this division was ever convicted for war crimes doesn't mean that they didn't happen. There are many eye witness accounts of murders perpetrated by the Galician Division and this book should not be allowed to obfuscate that - DO NOT BE FOOLED BY THIS BOOK

This book about the 14th Galician Division of the Waffen-SS by Michael James Melnyk is just simply a must for all people interested in the foreign soldiers serving within the german ranks during WW2. It is a precisly and objective researched work on that subject. This is the first book worth to be announced "serious"! There is so much crap, referring to easteuropean veterans fighting together with the germans, on the market that it was really about time a book came out that would satisfy any reader interested in the history and fate of those soldiers from Galicia/Ukraine. And not only in reading but also in finding new and never before seen photomaterial. This author did more than just a great job and I'm very happy to own a copy myself. There is no more to say... This book is highly recommanded!!!
I'd give the book a five +!!!!

I'm an American living in Russia and travel extensively here because of my job. Despite wild currency changes and other idiosyncracies of this country, this book is amazingly accurate almost all of the time. Although it is short on photos, it is long history and practical advice. Don't come here without it -- especially if you're an independent traveller.

I lived in Russia for a year and traveled extensively in European Russia and Siberia and this book never failed me. Although prices fluctuated, everything else was absolutely accurate and very thoroughly researched. The writers went to enormous lengths to write what is hands-down the best travel guide to Russia. The new edition is due out this April. Mine is already on order.

I found this book fascinating. It was great the way the writer bought into consideration the fact that no-one wants to travel to the places in question. When reading this book be sure to enquire at your local travel agent for any misconseptions. great book. 5 star

This book offers an interesting range of facts from russia, ukrane and belarus. The only problem is nobody in the Western World wants to go to any of these places as a result of the cold war. So that is why I give this book 1 star.

I'm glad this book is not sold anymore! When my mother-in-law (a NZer) read it and then came with us to visit Kiev, Lviv, Moscow and some small and mid-sized cities and towns, she said she read your book, but LUCKILY didn't find it to be true!!!

I think the author of the book needs to visit Ukraine and Russia soonish and re-write the book, or get some treatment for..., racism, cold war and a shield from what the media brings to your TV screens (everyone knows that only bad news and breakthroughs make news), so please use your brains!

I read the book after my mother-in-law's remarks and was sick in my stomach, for quite a while.

I've found this comprehensive and accessible study to be one of my favorite texts (I'm a rabbinical student with a fairly extensive reading list). I've just completed a third reading of the book and I find that as my learning deepens, so does my appreciation of this work. Rabbi Miles Krassen, PhD brings both the dedication and thoroughness of an academic and the depth of understanding of a serious contemplative practice to his work, a rare and deeply appreciated combination. I strongly recommend The Uniter of Heaven and Earth both to those interested in the study of Hasidism and to those interested in deepening a spiritual practice.

As a student of Chasidut and Jewish studies I have found this book to be a great resource. It is beautifully written with artfull translations of Hebrew texts. Krassen shows us the depth and beauty of the essential teachings of Hasidut of that era. I can't wait to read his next book on the topic.

Miles Krassen's work is an invaluable resource for anyone wanting to understand the history of Chasidism in general and the thought of Meshullam Feibush. There are few scholarly works on early Chasidic thought available in English and this is one of the finest. I sincerely doubt that Steve Savedow, who posted several negative reviews of this book here, ever read it.

Because Rabbi Miles Krassen is a true practiced hasid and deep contemplative his writing about the earlier hasids of the Hasidic movement gives us a genuine entrance into that world. It is not just an academic tome but has the quality of writing of a true scholar combined with the personal wisdom and understanding necessary to fully address these ideas. Of all the books in English that I have read on this topic, it is rare to find that combination. It is not a book to be read only once, but studied and meditated on again and again. I have read it now 4 times and teach from it often. I have recommended it to every group that I teach.

Miles Krassen's book, "Uniter of Heaven and Earth: Rabbi Meshullam Feibush Heller of Zbarazh and the Rise of Hasidism in Eastern Galicia" is a masterful presentation of the thought of an early Hasidic master. Heller was part of the circle of closest associates of the Baal Shem Tov though not having spent time with the founder of hasidism himself. A study of his thought then gives us a glimpse into one of the earliest directions of Hasidic thinking before it started to gain some of its narrower focus in the hands of the students of the Maggid of Mezheritch. As such, we find expressions of an ascetic orientation and a harshness of approach that are not so characteristic of the teachings normally attributed to the Besht, the Maggid, and the disciples of the latter. In broadening the picture of early Hasidic thinking Krassen has done a real service for Jewish studies scholarship and the Jewishly educated lay reader.
I found Krassen's treatment insightful, incisive, and a model of clarity. In fact, his chapters on 'devekut', cleaving to God, are perhaps the best current introduction to the topic. Accordingly, I have made them required reading in my classes on Hasidism.
In short, I highly recommend this erudite and accessible book to all who have an interest, and some background, in the history and thought of Hasidism.

This book strikes me as having been a first draft or proposal, but which somehow wound up as a finished product. I bought the book because I was taken in by a rather ambiguous blurb - allegedly by "John LeCarre" - on the dust jacket. I should have known better.

Despite the positive reputations of the book's two (why two?) translators, I found the translation from the French - or whatever language the book was written in - to be severely deficient. It detracted from the already thin value of the novel itself.

- Russian, apparently author Nella Bielski's native tongue, does not have the Latin letter "H", which is why, for example, in Russian the name Hitler would be given as Gitler. So, when we see in the book a German place called "Schansengof" it should be obvious that the "g" in that word was the Russian author's way of transliterating the German letter "h"; it should be "Schansenhof." What professional interpreter(s) would not know this? Have they not ever been to France's next door neighbor?

- The Russian term "vnuchka" in the book is translated as "little daughter". In fact, the word means granddaughter.

- At one point a girl refers to her grandfather, grandmother, and "Babushka." To a reader who doesn't know any Russian it makes it seem as if there are three people being referred to; actually Babushka is just the Russian word for grandmother. Is the average reader supposed to know this? How about the translators?

- Why do he translators use the French spelling of a Russian name. The name of the hospital is given in the book as the "Botkine", whereas in reality it's Botkin in both in Russian and in English.

With all due respect to the author, the book is just not edited or finished properly.

As if written by a beautiful butterfly enticing the reader by sensing the tale through a veil of history, humanity and inference. Three lives until the end when the force of generations becomes clear and affecting.

This novel is beautifully done. I immediately read it twice through. It's short and slightly elliptical. The first main character is a loyal German Army officer who fought in WW I and comes to hate and fear the Nazis. The second main character is a Ukranian pediatrician who was born in the old regime and lives through the 1917 revolution, its forward looking first fifteen years and then the repressions and horrors of the Stalin years. None of the above, however, really tells you what the novel is about because it's about the interior as well as the exterior life of the main characters.

I had high expectations for this novel. In a way, this novel works from an implied starting point, where two protagonists intersect. The body of events are a long string of occurences, set in 3 sections, which trace the intricate multiplicities that inform the place and time for events. The event itself, 2 characters meeting, is uneventful and not significant. Could it be just another event setting the table for the future? The effect is to foreground the lineage that informs each moment in our lives. The flurry of events are barely noticable to the characters, as they are to our lives. I give it 3 stars as the author fails to offer any interpretation regarding the significance of the events.

I try to read every WW2 era novel I can get my hands on, particulartly those from non-american viewpoints. This means I read action-thriller, non-fiction, plain fiction, etc. I am very pleased when a book includes much more than just battle scences and international intrigue. This novel however did not seem to be what it claimed in the dust jacket.

Bielski's writing style is a bit different than some may be used to, but that did not necessarily take away from a wonderful and exciting storyline -- for the first half of the book. After that, it seems like she forgets why she was originally writing the story and goes off talking about something completely unrelated. This would have made sense if the storylines had been brought together at some point, but they were not.

No mention of the characters or events from the first half of the book until the final 3 or 4 pages; and then it seems almost as an afterthought, as if trying to tie up loose ends. The end result left me with too many unanswered questions, and really no desire to see them answered by this writer.

If you like artsy books that lead to nowhere, then this is for you. This story could have easily been done in any other year other than the year '42, and the reader would walk away feeling the same exact way.