Away from the dead

ISBN: 9781773103105 (paperback)
Physical Description: print regular print 224 pages ; 21 cm
Publisher: Federicton, New Brunswick : Goose Lane, [2023]
Copyright: &copy;2023
Badges: Top Holds Over Last 5 Years : 4 / 5.0

Bergen, David 1957- (author.).

Summary: Violence is the domain of both the rich and poor. Or so it seems in early 20th-century Ukraine during the tumult of the Russian Revolution. As anarchists, Bolsheviks, and the White Army all come and go, each claiming freedom and justice, David Bergen embeds his readers into the lives of characters connected through love, family, and loyalty. Lehn, a bookseller south of Kiev, deserts the army and writes poetry to his love back home; Sablin, an adopted Mennonite-Ukrainian stableboy, runs with the anarchists only to discover that love and the planting of crops is preferable to killing; Inna, a beautiful young peasant, tries to stop a Mennonite landowner from stealing her child. In a world of violence, Sablin, Lehn, and Inna learn to love and hate and love again, hoping, against all odds, that one can turn away from the dead.