Ukrainian Canadian family saga
December 06th, 2022
Author Diana Stevan began a trilogy about a family saga based on her Ukrainian grandmother’s tales of surviving war, epidemics and displacement circa 1915 with her title Sunflowers Under Fire (Island House Publishing, 2019). Somewhat fictionalized, the heroine’s name is not her grandmother’s; rather its Lukia Mazurets who takes what’s left of her family and emigrates from Polish-occupied Ukraine to Canada during the Great Depression in the second book, Lilacs in the Dustbowl (Peregrin Publishing, 2021). In her new country, Lukia is faced with the dilemma of choosing between a new romance or her children. Now the third book has been published, Paper Roses on Stony Mountain (Island House Publishing $21.95) covering the period during WW II when Lukia’s children threaten to abandon her and the farm. “Given the continuing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, this story also illustrates how deep the divide has been for its citizens for well over a century,” said Diana Stevan after the publication of her first book in the series. “It should resonate with those who’ve undergone similar trials and then left their homeland for a better life elsewhere. No one leaves the land of their birth if it continues to serve them well.” As the latest book illustrates, life in a new country may not be a bed of roses either. 9781988180090
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