Memory Keeper of Kyiv - Erin Litteken

 Memory Keeper of Kyiv - Erin Litteken  

She read

Publication Date:  May 17, 2022

This story alternates between 1929/early thirties and 2004.  The earlier time frame chronicles the experiences of Katya during the Holodomor in Ukrainia, while the latter introduces her in later years with her daughter, grand daughter, Cassie, and great granddaughter, Birdie.

The Holodomor (literally death by hunger) was another horrific time in the history of Ukrainia.   It was a time of famine, terror, deportation, and death.  The famine was manmade by Stalin and the Soviets as they stripped the country of its food.  As the author said “everyone wants Ukraine’s fertile soil for their own, and nobody wants to let Ukrainians rule it.”  In the author’s notes, Litteken reports that 1 in 8 Ukrainians died during this time and the country lost almost 13% of its population.  And yet, the famine/terror was denied by the Soviets and even by western journalists for years. 

Written before the present atrocities in Ukraine, this is a tough book to read, but it needs to be read.  Litteken is a good story teller and she portrays the horrors without being overly graphic.

Some reviews have suggested that the book should have only included the earlier story and not the later one involving Katya’s granddaughter, herself a widow trying to rebuild her life as she learns about her grandmother’s past.  I thought, though, that it gave a nice balance and coda to the earlier horrors.  

I give this book five stars because it is something that needs to be read.  How can this genocide be happening again less than 100 years later?

*****