The Child Thief in Around the World in 80 Books

Apr 13, 2022 Julie Griffin rated it it was amazing

It is winter in 1930 in Western Ukraine, and the village of Vyriv is huddled down in the cold and neverending snow, hoping that the forest and snow around them will keep them unnoticed by the Bolshevik government soldiers who are roaming the countryside seizing land and food and animals and sending the "enemies of the people" to gulags even more bleak and frozen.
Luka, a Russian veteran of three different armies from WWI and the Revolution, leaves behind his Ukrainean native wife and young daugh It is winter in 1930 in Western Ukraine, and the village of Vyriv is huddled down in the cold and neverending snow, hoping that the forest and snow around them will keep them unnoticed by the Bolshevik government soldiers who are roaming the countryside seizing land and food and animals and sending the "enemies of the people" to gulags even more bleak and frozen.
Luka, a Russian veteran of three different armies from WWI and the Revolution, leaves behind his Ukrainean native wife and young daughter to take his twin sons Viktor and Petro hunting for game. What they find instead, a lone man dragging a sled behind him across the frozen ice, will bring something forbidding to the little village.
Luka and his sons bring the man home to try to help him, and shortly after a violent incident that makes Luka question himself and his fellow villagers, a young girl is taken. Luka and his sons set off into the frozen wilderness to find her and her abductor, and in this journey Viktor meets his match and also battles his own conscience.
This is one of those books that can be read just for the straightforward action and survival in a freezing wilderness, or for the more subtle layering beneath. The vulnerability and helplessness of the girl and at times her would-be rescuers mirrors the situation of Vyriv in the dangerous times of 1930 Soviet Russia. Viktor's responses and his challenger ask questions about the lingering effects of violence on soldiers who have lived through the adrenaline and excitement and terror of fighting and war and death, and what that can do years later to them. It asks what individuals can do in the face of powerful threat, and what their place is in a collective society. What do we owe others, and what do we owe to our loved ones vs helpless victims of violence? Luka's twins mirror the conflicting but also complementary characteristics of expansive compassion vs clear eyed survival and courage. Luka follows his own integrity and there is some hope at the end for us all.
Recommend for anyone who might like this contemplative novel or just enjoy the pitting of goodness vs power, man against unrelenting nature. A look into the history of Ukraine and Russia that seems very relevant today. It's a book I'm glad I read. ...more

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