Unforgettable stories based on the heartbreaking experiences of Ukrainian families during WW1
Author Bio:
IPPY Book Award 2020 silver medal winner for SOUVENIRS FROM KYIV.
Long-listed in the Flash500 Novel Competition 2017 for No Man's Land/The Breach.
Winner of the Flash500 Short Story Competition with an extract from Bolzano.
Winner of the Coffee Pot Book Club Book Award Box and Box Set of the Year 2019 for the Reschen Valley Box Set.
A Discovered Diamond, shortlisted for Book of the Month July 2019, Reschen Valley Box Set
Reader's Favorite 5-star reviews for Bolzano, The Smuggler of Reschen Pass, and Magda's Mark (featured in The Road to Liberation Collection).
HNS International Short Story 2nd Place Winner 2014 for Souvenirs from Kyiv (short story in the Souvenirs from Kyiv collection)
Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger was born in Minnesota in 1969 and grew up in the culture-rich neighborhood of "Nordeast" Minneapolis. She started her writing career with short stories, travel narratives, worked as a journalist and then as a managing editor for a magazine publisher before jumping the editor's desk and pursuing her dreams of writing and traveling. In 2000, she moved to western Austria and established her own communications training company. She has won several awards for her short stories and novels and now primarily writes historical fiction. During a trip into northern Italy over the Reschen Pass, she stood on the edge of Reschen Lake and desperately wanted to understand how a 15th-century church tower ended up sticking out of the water. What stories were lying beneath? Some eight years later, she launched the "Reschen Valley" series with five books and a novella releasing between 2018 and 2021, in parallel to her WW2 novels and short story collections.
For more on Chrystyna, dive in at inktreks(dot)com.
Book Blurb:
‘Russia has been trying to wipe Ukraine off the world map for thousands of years. They haven’t succeeded yet. Now, I’m picking up my stone and throwing it at Goliath. I want people to understand. I want to save this country.’ Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger, March 2022
Larissa is a renowned embroiderer, surviving in occupied Ukraine during World War II as a seamstress in her ruin of a workshop. Surrounded by enemies, she expresses her defiance by threading history into her garments. But at what cost?
Mykhailo is a soldier on leave, returning to Ukraine from the front on Christmas Eve. As he travels through his country, he is confronted by the hardship the war has brought to his fellow countrymen. Will what he sees this Christmas change the course of his life forever?
Marusia and her family are woken early one morning by the arrival of the Nazis, who have come to search for her partisan brother. As the soldiers move through their house, her family has just moments to make choices that will determine their survival.
Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger’s stories bring to life the true history of her Ukrainian family who fought to survive World War II. Laced with hope,Souvenirs from Kyiv celebrates the endurance and resilience of the human spirit.
Souvenirs from Kyiv was awarded 2nd Place in the 2014 HNS International Short Story Award and the collection won the silver medal in the IPPY Book Awards 2020 for Military and Wartime fiction.
Praise for Souvenirs from Kyiv:
‘I am stunned by the sad beauty . . . That's how I feel after reading a really brilliant book.’ Marina Osipova, author of How Dare the Birds Sing
‘I couldn't put it down, I read it in one sitting. . . so beautifully written and completely heart-wrenching. . . This is an incredible book please read it.’ NetGalley reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘This book was an eye opener. . . The human need for freedom rings out. Read it. You owe it to yourself. . . I shed tears, tears of sadness and hope.’ Sunhusky Books ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘This book opened my eyes to the atrocities that Ukrainians have endured and are once again enduring in 2022. . . Highly recommended’ NetGalley reviewer
‘A book that made me cry and marvel at the bravery and resilience of the Ukrainian people’ NetGalley reviewer
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