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Sunflowers Under Fire by Diana Stevan
The year is 1915. Lukia is a Ukrainian wife and mother whose husband Gregory is leaving to fight in World War I; he informs her of this just after she has given birth to their eighth (sixth still living) child, and he leaves for battle almost immediately afterwards. With the eldest of her children still in their early teens, Lukia knows she must do whatever it takes to keep her family safe.
This opening sequence of events sets the scene, and indeed the tone, for the rest of this compelling story. This is a story about family, faith, farmland, emotional endurance in the hardest of times, and the importance of good neighbors—without being Ukrainian myself, I now feel much closer to understanding what it means to be Ukrainian.
Sunflowers Under Fire is expertly researched and told. Diana Stevan expertly combines her own imagination, family history, the history of Eastern Europe during World War I, and the emergence of the Bolsheviks. The novel was as much about the nation as it was about Lukia’s family, and I really like the minor historical tidbits she included, such the rumours Lukia occasionally heard about the Romanov family and customs associated with Ukrainian weddings.
Even though the majority of these events occurred less than a century ago and left an impression on later generations, Stevan vividly recreates a time that seems decades and planets far from the present. Without giving anything away, I’ll just say that reading this novel requires some emotional fortitude because readers will grow attached to the characters and feel immense sympathy for them throughout their suffering.
Many of the individuals are likeable, and it’s well worth travelling with this family if the reader experiences any sympathetic (or empathetic) pain on their account. Anyone interested in stories about families, World War I, Eastern European history and culture, historical fiction, or strong female characters would do well to read this book, in my opinion.
About The Book
Lukia Mazurets, a Ukrainian farmwife, delivers her eighth child while her husband is serving in the Tsar’s army. Soon after, she and her children are forced to flee the invading Germans. Over the next fourteen years, Lukia must rely on her wits and faith to survive life in a refugee camp, the ravages of a typhus epidemic, the Bolshevik revolution, unimaginable losses, and one daughter’s forbidden love.
Sunflowers Under Fire is a heartbreakingly intimate novel that illuminates the strength of the human spirit, as shown by its courageous and inspirational heroine. Based on the true stories of her grandmother’s ordeals, author Diana Stevan captures the voices of those who had little say in a country that is still being fought over. Readers who’ve enjoyed The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah have bought this book.
The Review
Sunflowers Under Fire
10 Score
Sunflowers Under Fire - This is such an interesting story. Starting in 1915, with the war entering the Ukraine, a family separated from the father, a soldier, must endure the hardship of leaving their burning home, ripen crops in the fields and a newborn to escape the fighting as ordered by their government. This is a must read for anyone who wants communism. While the Romanovs were not good leaders, their destruction and Lenin's takeover of Russia made life worse for the peasants, who did not have it good before communism. It is a well written story, full of heartbreak and sorrows, but also determination, courage and love. Following the journey of Lukia and her family kept me immersed in their story and made it difficult to put the book down.
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