This haunting and moving story is a fictionalised account of the author’s mother’s experiences of the Ukrainian Holodomor of the 1930s, Stalin’s deliberate attempt to starve the Ukrainians. When her mother dies, Vera Philipovna, just six years old, is taken in by her aunt in a village in the Ukrainian countryside and this aunt promises that Philipovna, as she comes to be called, will survive - although no one at the time could have foreseen just how hard that survival would turn out to be. Brutality, forced collectivisation and a heartless treatment of the native population by Party officials was the deliberate policy of the time and its depiction in this short book is searing. We stay with Philipovna for three years and see daily life in the village through her eyes. Personally I didn’t find the child narrator’s voice particularly convincing, being too naïve at times and too knowing at others, but overall the book, as a memorial and a homage to the author’s mother, and a realistic depiction of this terrible time in Ukrainian history is both convincing and memorable.

​One of the best books I will read in 2019.

When Philipovnas father dies, her Aunt Xena takes her in, promising her that she will survive.

When "Father-Stalin" propagandists move into Philipovnas small village, her family watches as their food is taken from them, often times burned or laid to rot. ​A famine spreads across the village, Father Stalin needs your horses, your grain, your livestock...
Closed off this village suffered without a doctor or medicine, children died from starvation of the croup. Men were forced to join the Kolhosp, forced to harvest the food they were forbidden to eat.
Philipovna watched as her once large family, dwindled down, as her friends and neighbors, died or were murdered by the "comrades".

I want to know more about the woman this little girl grew up to be.
I don't want her story to end.

The book is about a Ukrainian orphan girl surviving holodomor. She was adopted by her aunt family, and they lived happily on the family farm. Then Russians come to the village and try to take their land and convert people into joining kolhosp - collective farm, which was a form of slavery. Russians take all of their food, harass, torture and murder people, and leave the families to starve, all in the name of Mother Russia and Father Stalin. I heard multiple accounts of the times, from books and from what neighbors and friends told about the times. The book rings true to all of that. One of my neighbors remembers as the Russians came for food and they took everything including a piece of bread, she, then a little girl, was holding in her hand and eating. Those were not human beings.
The book is especially timely in light of Russia attacking and occupying parts of Ukraine at the moment, all the while pretending to fight "fascists" there or some other nonsense., and sowing seeds of unrest all over the world, including our own country.
The book is very well written and well researched and sounds like an authentic account of the times. I stayed up until 3 am to finish it, I couldn't stop reading.

One of the greatest reads I've read this year!
Philipovna's parents are dead. She is an orphan. Her godfather will decide where she will live. He decides she will go to her Aunt Xena and Uncle Misha and her cousins. Their village is overrun by
Propagandists who are sent by Stalin to show the villagers the "new" way of life. Comrade Zabluda is the head of the propagandist's. The ultimate goal for them is take away land, crops, food and any grains that the villagers have. Starvation sets in. Then diphtheria. Many die. Philipovna's aunt promised that she would watch over her and make sure she survives. Even if she has to take her far away and give her to an orphanage. A heartwarming, heartbreaking story of strength, determination, honor, and commitment.
Excellent!