Overview
«Me dejó sin respiración. Una de las mejores autobiografías del año». —R. Tomaszewska, Virago (Reino Unido)
En 2014, Vika regresa a su Ucrania natal para investigar un misterio familiar: cómo murió su tío tatarabuelo Nikodim en la década de 1930 y por qué su historia sigue siendo tabú casi un siglo después. Desentrañar viejas incógnitas resulta complicado, pero nunca habría previsto que la resistencia más fuerte la encontraría en su abuela Valentina, que le prohíbe remover el pasado. No en vano Ucrania es «tierra de sangre», como sus vecinas Polonia, Bielorrusia, Rusia y los países bálticos: en el área de Poltava, donde residió la familia, el KGB desapareció hace ya mucho, pero su antiguo cuartel general todavía aterroriza a los lugareños.
Mientras el país se sumerge en un nuevo conflicto con Rusia tras la anexión de Crimea, el lector acompaña a Vika entre los temidos archivos del KGB en busca de la verdad sobre el pasado del país y sobre Nikodim, incluso a riesgo de un enfrentamiento directo con su familia.
Entre el memoir y la novela detectivesca, esta obra conjuga su enorme carga emocional con un lúcido análisis de la historia. Al tiempo que Victoria Belim terminaba esta novela sobre una Ucrania que intentaba hacer las paces con su pasado y florecer, su tierra se enfrentaba de nuevo al dolor de otra cruel guerra.
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION
A timely and deeply moving memoir of the author’s Ukrainian family history, interwoven with the country’s tumultuous story
In 2014, the landmarks of Victoria Belim’s personal geography were plunged into tumult at the hands of Russia. Her hometown Kyiv was gripped by protests and violent suppression. Crimea, where she’d once been sent to school to avoid radiation from the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, was invaded. Kharkiv, where her grandmother Valentina studied economics and fell in love; Donetsk, where her father once worked; and Mariupol, where she and her mother bought a cherry tree for Valentina’s garden all became battlegrounds.
A naturalized American citizen then living in Brussels, Belim felt she had to go back. She had to spend time with her aging grandmother and her cousin Dima. She had to unravel a family mystery spanning several generations. And she needed to understand how her country’s tragic history of communist revolution, civil war, famine, world war, totalitarianism, and fraught independence had changed the course of their lives.
The Rooster House is a beautifully written memoir of a family, a country’s past, and its dangerous present. It is about parents and children, true believers and victims, gardens and art, secrets and tragedy. Compulsively readable, deeply moving, and at times laugh-out-loud funny, it is a stunning debut book by an experienced, expressive, and gifted writer.
This book title, Mi Ucrania / The Rooster House: My Ukrainian Family Story, A Memoir, ISBN: 9788426424136, by Victoria Belim, published by PRH Grupo Editorial (February 21, 2023) is available in paperback. Our minimum order quantity is 25 copies. All standard bulk book orders ship FREE in the continental USA and delivered in 4-10 business days.
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