This is a first novel from Marina Lewycka. She was born in a refugee camp in Germany in 1946 and moved to the UK when she was one. Short History turned out to be quite successful, winning and being short listed for prizes and her subsequent novels are Two Caravans (released as Strawberry Fields in USA and Canada) and We Are All Made Of Glue.
This is an often humorous book about what happens when an 84 year old widower marries a young Ukrainian bombshell wanting to settle in the UK. Much of our discussion was prompted by Jane asking a list of questions about the characters in the book which I believe was taken from the author's own website. If you are interested to hear Marina discuss her book and think about the list of the questions, this is the link : http://marinalewycka.com/tractors.html
The book is very much about the relationships in families--between an elderly parent and his grown daughters, between the two sisters, and how these relationships are threatened or transformed by the introduction of the young wife Valentina and her "genius" son into the picture.This is an often humorous book about what happens when an 84 year old widower marries a young Ukrainian bombshell wanting to settle in the UK. Much of our discussion was prompted by Jane asking a list of questions about the characters in the book which I believe was taken from the author's own website. If you are interested to hear Marina discuss her book and think about the list of the questions, this is the link : http://marinalewycka.com/tractors.html
Despite Valentina being portrayed as a "gold-digger", there were sympathies for her wanting a "better" future for her son.
We rate the book 7 out of 10.
Our next book is Still Alice by Lisa Genova (another debut novel) and our meeting will take place at Megan's on September 21.
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