Product Description

'Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a glamourous blonde Ukrainian 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 a sludge of sloughed-off memories, giving the family ghosts a kick up the backside.' Sisters Vera and Nadezhda must put aside a lifetime of feuding to save their émigré engineer father from voluptuous gold-digger Valentina. With her proclivity for green satin underwear and boil-in-the-bag cuisine, she will stop at nothing in her pursuit of Western wealth. But the sisters' campaign to oust Valentina unearths family secrets, uncovers fifty years of Europe's darkest history and sends them back to roots they'd much rather forget...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3046 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-02
• Released on: 2006-03-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

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

About the Author
Marina Lewycka lives in Sheffield with her husband and daughter, and teaches at Sheffield Hallam University.

Customer Reviews

Squishy squashy, flippy floppy
Two years after Nadia's mother dies, her 84 year old father marries voluptuous Ukranian Valentina, who is 36. Nadia and her sister Vera see through the gold-digger and bury the hatchet to unite in their determination to protect their father, who is soon being taunted with cries of "squishy squashy, flippy floppy" and worse. The story of how the sisters' family themselves left the Ukraine during the second world war, and the book about tractors their father is writing, reveal much of the tragic history of that country in flashes through the laugh-out-loud humour. A real tragi-comedy with a feel-good ending.

The pits
The author weaves a very, very weak story set in modern day Britain essentially around the many tragedies of twentieth century Ukraine. The historical bits are indeed interesting but the story, characters, dialogue, humour...its all truly lousy. How this book can be considered so worthwhile by so many people is depressing...Stay well away!!!

Almost very good indeed
I liked this-with reservations. The writing is light, sprightly, with real humour. The characters are interesting. The relationship between the two sisters is beautifully portrayed and developed and the idiosyncrasies of the father are both touching and amusing. I didn't feel that the character of Valentina was quite as well developed as it could have been, although her abusive tirades in broken english had me in stitches. For me, the best feature of the story was the way it juxtaposed the two types of 'immigrant': the refugee from horror and atrocity and the 'modern' aspirant to a western lifestyle. This made me think and inspired me to learn more about the history of the Ukraine. My main negative comment is that I felt the ending was a bit of a let down, and didn't really live up to what had been set up before: I felt it was a little rushed and somewhat incongruous, certainly not satisfying my feeling that something hilarious/touching or fundamental was going to happen. It rather fizzled out.
That said, still a very enjoyable read and an insight into a community and a history that I knew nothing of previously.