Product Description

For years, Nadezhda and Vera, two Ukrainian sisters, raised in England by their refugee parents, have had as little as possible to do with each other - and they have their reasons. But now they find they'd better learn how to get along, because since their mother's death their aging father has been sliding into his second childhood, and an alarming new woman has just entered his life. Valentina, a bosomy young synthetic blonde from the Ukraine, seems to think their father is much richer than he is, and she is keen that he leave this world with as little money to his name as possible. If Nadazhda and Vera don't stop her, no one will. But separating their addled and annoyingly lecherous dad from his new love will prove to be no easy feat - Valentina is a ruthless pro and the two sisters swiftly realize that they are mere amateurs when it comes to ruthlessness. As Hurricane Valentina turns the family house upside down, old secrets come falling out, including the most deeply buried one of them all, from the War, the one that explains much about why Nadazhda and Vera are so different. In the meantime, oblivious to it all, their father carries on with the great work of his dotage, a grand history of the tractor.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #50423 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

Review
When an octogenarian divorcee falls for a voluptuous gold-digger less than half his age, his bickering daughters have no choice but to join forces to oust the vulgar harpy. With conflicting emotions, Nadezhda, the younger daughter, relates this well-told tale. She switches from the frequently farcical situation that develops in the old man's increasingly dilapidated Peterborough home to touchingly tender memories of her deceased mother and the long lost traditions of her Ukrainian homeland. As she and her 'big sis' up the ante to get the better of their dangerously ruthless new mother-in-law, 'pappa' buries his head in his pet project - writing a history of tractors in Ukrainian. And, as his physical and mental health come under threat from the unpleasant new love of his life, Nadezhda herself comes to discover some unwelcome truths about her own family's history that differ greatly from what she'd been told by her father. (Kirkus UK)

From the Inside Flap
"Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a
glamorous blonde Ukranian divorcee. He was eighty-four and she was
thirty-six. She exploded into our lives like a fluffy pink grenade,
churning up the murky water, bringing to the surface sludge of sloughed-off
memories, giving the family ghosts a kick up the backside."

From the Back Cover
Praise for A SHORT HISTORY OF TRACTORS IN UKRAINIAN: 'Outstanding' Daily Mail

'Extremely funny' The Times

'Nothing short of amazing' Daily Express

Customer Reviews

Engrossing in many ways
This book has won an award for comic fiction; but, richly comic though the writing is, the story is for the most part essentially a tragic one. I am reminded of Horace Walpole's dictum, `This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.' Nikolai, an 84-year old Ukrainian-born widower who has lived in England since 1946 as an escapee from Stalinist Russia, marries a much more recent immigrant from the now independent Ukraine: Valentina, 36 years old, who is here on a visitor's visa and marries him only to be allowed permanent residence and to gain access to his money and his house. She exploits and bullies the poor and near senile old man mercilessly. His two daughters, Vera and Nadia, are outraged. They have fought with each other all their lives, and they still do; but they make common cause to try to rescue their father and what might be left of their inheritance. In the course of the story we are given glimpses of the history of Ukraine, the terrible sufferings of the civil war, the terror and the famine of the Stalin years, the Second World War, a labour camp; also of the development of tractors - those symbols of the collective farms, of which the old man, a former engineer, is writing a history. Towards the end, the book becomes a near farce, and then modulates into a happier ending than we had any reason to expect. We are even allowed for a moment to see the monstrous gold-digger as herself a victim, too. The descriptions of the individuals and the relationships between them is excellent, the somewhat fractured English spoken by the old man and the even more primitive but expressive mauling of it by Valentina is spot-on. A memorable book.

Pleasant, if not spectacular
The gimmicky title and the good reviews were the reasons that I decided to read this book, and I was surprised by what I found. At its heart, this book is about: the struggle to find your place within your family; how much our family history affects and influences us in the present and how you can begin to doubt your political opinions when they become issues in your own life. I wouldn't have said that this book was 'laugh out loud funny', although it did raise a wry smile every now and then. And it did make me reflect on my own family history and the issues of immigration raised within the book. Overall, this is no literary masterpiece, but it's a pleasant commuter read.

Funny and satisfying!
This book is a quirky tale of a feisty and disjointed family. It has wildy comic moments and also very sobering educational glimpses into the histories of the characters, and a historical background into Ukrainian 20th century history (which I knew little about prior to reading this).

I enjoyed this book as it doesn't try to be anything grandiose, yet it is moving and also very funny - moments with the family that all of us can relate to in some way. The father is infuriating and selfish much of the time. However, I often felt sorry for him throughout the story as he is so blind to the deceptions and reality of the predicaments that he gets himself into.

I usually go for much grittier stories which are often harder to get to grips with and sometimes, try as I might, I just don't always "get it"! I was pleased to discover that this book was much more impressive than I expected and I enjoyed every page - Its a real page turner!