Something Unbelievable by Maria Kuznetsova– 288 pages
ARC from Random House and Netgalley for an honest review
Book Blurb:
Larissa is a stubborn, brutally honest woman in her eighties, tired of her home in Kiev, Ukraine–tired of everything really, except for her beloved granddaughter, Natasha. Natasha is tired as well, but that’s because she just had a baby, and she’s struggling to balance her roles as a new mother, a wife, a struggling actress, and a host to her husband’s slacker best friend, Stas, who has been staying with them in their cramped one-bedroom apartment in upper Manhattan.
When Natasha asks Larissa to tell the story of her family’s Soviet wartime escape from the Nazis in Kiev, she reluctantly agrees. Maybe Natasha is just looking for distraction from her own life, but Larissa is desperate to make her happy, even though telling the story makes her heart ache. Larissa recounts the nearly three-year period when she fled with her self-absorbed sister, parents, and grandmother to a factory town in the Ural Mountains where they faced starvation, a cholera outbreak, a tragic suicide, and where she was torn in her affections for two brothers from a wealthy family. But neither Larissa nor Natasha can anticipate how loudly these lessons of the past will echo in their present moments.
My Review: 4.5 stars
Something Unbelievable was nothing short of unbelievably well done. From the very start, two main protagonists grabbed me with their utterly realistic dialogue. It was wrought with wit and honesty, a striking combination.
Two women, grandmother (Larissa) and granddaughter (Natasha) are several decades apart with a world between them geographically that share only memories of Natasha’s summer visits to the seaside outside Kiev to visit her grandmother. Through Skype they stay in touch and right from the start I knew I’d love Larissa after she reveals her thoughts that her great-granddaughter looks like a rat-faced girl.
The writing in this book was smart and well-paced. After Natasha asks Larissa to tell her the story of her years in exile while the Nazis occupied Kiev, they both learn so much more about each other, their differences and similarities exposed. This book portrays how decisions made by your ancestors can carry on through the generations. It reminds us that women are facing many of the same issues that were present decades ago.
Natasha was as real as they come; her thoughts and actions so understandable from a new mom’s POV. I enjoyed her audition feedback and how her Russian accent could work for or against her. The author employed punctuated nuances throughout the book that made the story come alive. I look forward to reading more from this author.
Quotes I liked:
The women had much in common, so naturally they had already become enemies.”
“Family is everything. Everything else is just wind through the trees. One day, you’ll see.”
“And soon I will evaporate, and you will have no story to remember.”
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