This book is filled with a wonderful female presence. There are intricately woven folk tales, mythologies, and stories from the Ukraine. That said, I wish that the overall narrative had been more complete. I wanted to know the characters better. I wanted them to have the life that the old tales of the ancestors had. Still, I enjoyed the reading of it. ( )

This is the story of a peasant girl in Eastern Europe during WWII. She takes us first to a face to face with her memories and demons, and then we are held in suspense with her daughter to hear her reflect back on memories she hadn't shared before. ( )

This book is beautiful and mesmerizing, heartbreaking and uplifting all at the same time. I love the superstitions interwoven into the story and how storytelling is so important to the Ukrainian people.

Nadya is 70 years old but still haunted by events in the Ukraine that happened during WWII when she was really a mere child. But this is also about family and the things we keep to ourselves and the things we think others don’t know and how that affects how we live our lives and the relationships we have.

I love that you think Nadya & Pavlov’s relationship is one thing and then as the story unfolds you realize it is something completely different. Ugh how can I explain how this made me feel without spoilers let’s just say with the way it starts out I didn’t expect it to progress as it did. Oh my goodness Pavlov was so not what I expected him to be from the first half of the book. The way I felt about Pavlov was like a rollercoaster ride.

Oh Nadya I just want to hug you and tell you to let things go, explain your life to your children let them really know you and allow yourself to be happy!

I loved the Ukrainian folklore and the holiday rituals in this book and it made me want to do research to incorporate some of these into my own holidays especially the parts about honoring your ancestors it was so beautiful!

The first part of this review is thoughts and feelings I had as I was listening to it. This book evoked such emotion and the narration by Xe Sands brought those emotions through beautifully, the combination of Valya’s writing and Xe’s narration is so great both story and narration are lyrical. Xe’s soft delivery lends beautifully to the written word.

If you can’t tell already I loved this book so much I will be buying the paper book for my public library and if there is ever a cd version I will buy that for the library too. I would recommend this for a book club selection too, I think it would bring about great discussions and if you are a book club that does food and the like from the books you read this one would be perfect for that.

When I was finished I wanted to hit play and start it all over again! I think this book, Nadya and the traditions are something I will think about long after I am done. I also look forward to reading more by this author!

I highly recommend this book!

5 Stars ( )

Why did I read it? It was Goodreads Audiobook group, and it sounded interesting.

What's it about? The book centres around the stories of Nadya, a Ukrainian mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, living in Chicago, who while observing the daily, religious and seasonal rituals of her Ukrainian culture and upbringing, seeks to hide her past from those near and dear to her.

What did I like? The insight into Ukrainian folklore, myth, religion, the stories of Nadya's family and culture. The rituals, the observations of spirits, dreams, and ancestors and the internal conflict this effected in Nadya. The stories are well-written and, to my mind, well observed by Valya Dudycz Lupescu. These aspects were fascinating to me.

The story alternates between the present, and the past, but the reminiscences are not kept in chronological order either and this lends an air of true, internal dialogue. When we remember our past, triggered by a smell, a sight, a feeling, we don’t always return to the moment immediately after the last we last visited, but go direct to the time of the memory triggered. The memory triggers that Valya Dudycz Lupescu invokes felt true and real, as did the beliefs in spirit of the characters; it always read as natural, not forced.

The ending was not all tied up neatly, something I enjoy in some stories, though the reader is left with a sense of what is to come. This was nicely done.

What didn't I like? I had no understanding as to Nadya's reasoning for doing what she did in attempting to keep her past hidden; I just could not fathom it. I had more sympathy/empathy with other characters and their experiences through the Second World War, and their subsequent behaviour than I did with the main character. It never felt quite right with Nadya.

I wish I had chosen to read, rather than listen to this book. I have to say that I did not enjoy, or take pleasure in the narration style: It was too soft, too breathy and husky, seemingly draining energy from the stories. There was an attempt at voice characterisation, but this did not work for me at all. The long silences between chapters also felt unnecessary, and the volume was so low I was forced to turn up the volume (even on a headset) resulting in sound distortion.

I feel I ought to have read the book and heard the voices of the characters in my head, some needed voices that were as strong as their characters, which I felt was missing in the audiobook.

My rating loses a star for my lack of connection to the main character, and another star because of the audio rendition. I would probably rate the written text four stars.

Would I recommend it? Yes. I would recommend the written texts to several friends interested in history, folklore, myth, magic and the art storytelling. Valya Dudycz Lupescu has written, rather woven a beautiful story, full of wisdom and tenderness. ( )