Snow Goose Chronicles

Book excerpt: Samilenko’s The Snow Goose Chronicles describes what can only be called the genocide of the peasants. She includes the GULAGs, labor camps in Karelia, especially “Solovki” located in the former “Solovetsky” Monastery on a Northern island where inmates starved and froze to death. The Snow Goose Chronicles is must reading for anyone interested in the history of Ukraine its life and fate of Ukrainian peasants during the Soviet period. Anyone interested in getting to know a simple, lovable, morally upright human being will reread this book time and again. A great read! –Helen Segall Professor Emerita of Russian Language and Literature В «Снежном гусе» автор в качестве скальпеля использует острый меч, чтобы без горечи или злобы, но решительно вскрыть гнойные раны, которые ее народу нанесла и надеялась навсегда скрыть под незажившими рубцами советская власть. И это бы ей удалось, если бы не Снежный гусь, который в качестве беспристрастного свидетеля и летописца присутствует в повествовании от начала до последней точки. –Владимир Войнович The Snow Goose Chronicles is a moving, well-paced story with living characters doing the best they can to survive Stalinism. Olya Samilenko takes us on a fascinating ride through twentieth-century Ukraine and its tragic history, as experienced by two Ukrainians and two Jews. –Professor Alexander Motyl, Rutgers University-Newark Absurdity and verisimilitude coexist in this fluid tale, whose frequent allusions to Gogol – there is even a Comrade Chichikov – serve both to heighten and to assuage the tragedy of the romance. –Dr. Isaiah Gruber, Historian, Hebrew University of Jerusalem “Snow Goose” reads like a frightening mystery…. have to put it down and then rush back to read more. –Ulana Mazurkevich President, Ukrainian Human Rights Committee