This new novel takes place in Ukraine from 1973 - 2021. It's a deep look at three women. Grandmother Lyaksandro, who believes that the Russian communist party is taking care of the people of Ukraine. Despite the food shortages, her allegiance is to the Communist leadership. Her daughter, Yevt, longs for freedom from Communist rule. Her daughter, Ionna, loves her life in modern day Ukraine but longs to leave and see the world. All three of these women are living in a totally different political society and have opposing views. The one thing that they all have in common is that are all brave and resilient.

In 1973, Lyaksandro's husband disappears leaving her with a small daughter. Despite the hardships she and her daughter face on a daily basis, especially the lack of food, she continues to believe strongly in the Communist party. Her daughter Yevt, disagrees with her mother. She marries a college professor and they are jubilant when Russia is ousted from their country. Despite the fact that they think their lives will be totally free, there is still a lack of food and fewer opportunities to better themselves. When their daughter is born, she bonded more with her grandmother than her mother. The household is divided with her grandmother's trust in Russia and her parents belief in a capitalistic form of government. Ionna has to make her own decisions and face the world on her own terms.

This novel is beautifully written and well researched. The views of all three of the main characters represents what was going on in Ukraine during this time periods. It shows the tenacity of women who even under difficult situations can still live their lives with joy, faith and love for each other.

This book was very timely. As the Russian troops invade Ukraine with a goal of bringing the country back into Russia's ownership, the Ukrainians fight to keep their freedoms.. I knew very little about this country and leaned a lot about their past history and what life was like under Communist rule. The past history gave me a better understanding of what is going on in that part of the world today. ( )

As I write, Russian troops are invading the independent nation of Ukraine. This backdrop compelled me to hurry up to read this book for insight into the current conflict, and I am glad I did. It tells a complex tale of three generations of Ukrainian women trying to make a life amidst international strife. The coincidences are stultifying, but the author claims that the general narrative is true. The story reminds us of the enduring power of faith and family, the potential for good in human relationships, the need for undying perseverance and hope, and the impact of geopolitics on the life of individuals.

The story begins in 1973 as a father is whisked away from his family for spying on the USSR in the Soviet Republic of the Ukraine. Neither he nor his immediate family would learn of the other’s true fate as he was relocated in England. Instead, each side was told a fiction about the other’s death. Nonetheless, their individual stories live on in Brown’s slowly building narrative.

The mother and her only daughter survived near-starvation. Growing up, the daughter eventually secures an education and a job as a scientist at a university. She meets and marries a university professor who has silent sympathies towards capitalism, the West, and a Christian faith. They have one daughter who eventually ends up in America for a summer project. At this point, Russian military action against the Crimean Peninsula commences in 2014, and the plot – filled with coincidences and even a sense of providence – takes off towards a resolution from there.

This story is definitely sympathetic to the plight of Ukrainian nationalism and cynical about Russian intentions. It gave me additional insight into the geopolitical situation on the ground and how political and historical animosities impacted individuals. Thus, this work is timely and can be read as a preface to the stories we now see on the news. It will lend understanding into current events for those who may not have closely followed recent history.

But that is not all this story consists of. It reminds me of how the flames of faith continued to burn in the hearts of those under the “godless” rule of Soviet communism. It bespeaks of a nobility of being human and a dignified goodness about our lives interwoven from global politics to personal circumstance. In this narrative, the religious element plays an essential spark to these traits, but is not overbearing. The book is pro-faith, but not an evangelization. Readers need not be organizationally religious to appreciate Brown’s narrative, but an openness to some kind of “higher power” is, I think, necessary in order not to fight it. Religious and spiritual readers will love it, and I hope it will achieve some kind of following on the margins as well. The deft and hopeful storytelling encourages us to persevere in openness to what tomorrow might offer. ( )