The Orphanage - Background/General No Spoilers

[LindaJ^]

Welcome to Ukraine in the midst of war. No, it is not March 2022 but the winter of 2014, when Russia invaded to steal a few cities rather than the entire country. The non-participants, i.e., the civilians suffered as they are today. This book tells the story of an Uncle who, over a three-day period, struggles to get his nephew out of an orphanage and bring him home to where the uncle and the boy's grandfather live. The distance in kilometers is not far but covering it during a war is not easy. We will be journeying with Pasha as he retrieves his nephew Sasha. As all those Law and Order TV shows exclaim, this story was "ripped from the headlines." Even though the 2014 conflict received little press, the 2022 conflict is headline news.

Here are a few reviews/discussions:
https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-...
https://www.aspen.review/article/2018...
https://www.calvertjournal.com/articl...
https://where-is-steve.org/2021/03/th...

The NY Times included the book as one of six recommended for reading to obtain context on the current conflict, see https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2.... The other books, all non-fiction, are: The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine; Conflict in Ukraine: The Unwinding of the Post-Cold War Order; Absolute Zero; Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster; and Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine, 1921-1933. I read Red Famine and it provided a lot of background for understanding relations between Ukraine and Russia.

I read the book a couple of weeks ago and felt as if it was portraying what I was reading in the news. One thing to note is that orphanages in Ukraine are not just for those without parents, as in the US. Sometimes a parent will put their child in an orphanage for a period of time when dealing with a hardship of some sort, which is what the Sasha's mother did here. It made me think of the Milton Hershey school in Hershey PA and the Hinkley School in Maine where my cousin was placed when her mother died.

Let us know if you'll be along for the journey. I will set up another thread to discuss the book where spoilers will be welcome. No spoilers here.

I will be traveling for the first 18 days of the discussion, so I will not be as on top of the discussion as I'd like to be, but this group is full of insightful folks, so I don't expect delay on my part to interfere with discussion!

[♑︎♑︎♑︎]

I'm here! I read the book in ARC and I've since bought a print copy.

[LindaJ^]

So glad you are joining Lark.

[♑︎♑︎♑︎]

LindaJ^ wrote: "So glad you are joining Lark."

Thanks for the detailed explanation about the title. As I read the novel I wondered about whether there was a better word in English. I think I would have gone with "The Boarding School." Although that title emphasizes a different, also-wrong assumption, at least I have this literary understanding built up in my head that boarding schools are places poor kids like Jane Eyre get sent off to.

[Dianne]

I'm in! My copy just arrived.

[Jenna]

I'm about half way through and boy oh boy is this intense. Not gory but so tense, I had vivid dreams after starting it. It's also a surprising juxtaposion for me to be reading a war novel in such a supremely modern idiom and setting, which really brings home that this is NOW.

[LindaJ^]

Jenna and Dianne, glad you will be making the journey.

Lark, I must say I do not remember anything about Jane Eyre and a boarding school but then, I read it in some class in high school in the 1960's. But I expect it is very similar to the real life Milton Hershey and Hinckley schools, which are both boarding schools with some students spending school breaks and summers with family, relatives, or guardians.

[Hugh]

I did look into the options for buying this book, but it is currently only available in the UK as a rather expensive import, and because I have too many unread books at the moment I couldn't justify ordering it. It does look interesting and very topical.

[LindaJ^]

Hugh, If you'd like, I can send you my physical copy, as I bought the e-book to carry on my travels. Just e-mail me your address.

[Mindy]

I finished the book last night and look forward to the discussion.

[LindaJ^]

Welcome Mindy. Glad to have you on the journey!

[Sam]

I am reading this now.

[LindaJ^]

Hi Sam,
Good to hear that you are traveling with Pasha.

[Beverly]

I am about 70% in this book.
And yes it is very intense and timely.

Thanks for the background information.

A couple of months ago I read I Will Die in a Foreign Land by Kalani Pickhart which is set during the 2013 Euromaiden protests in Kyiv through the eyes of four characters. It is one of my favorite reads this year. I read it before the current invasion so it caught me up with some recent Ukrainian history. I have read about the horrific famines in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s.

[Hugh]

LindaJ^ wrote: "Hugh, If you'd like, I can send you my physical copy, as I bought the e-book to carry on my travels. Just e-mail me your address."
Thanks for offering, but realistically my to read pile is already overloaded.

[LindaJ^]

Great that you will be with us, Beverly.

[Triciasteffen]

I'm in! This is my first book with this group! I just started reading today.

[LindaJ^]

Welcome Triciasteffen!

[Linda]

I am new to the group and interested in joining this discussion.

[LindaJ^]

Glad to have you along Linda.

[Linda]

I just finished the book and found an interesting review from the Ukranian Institute in London I wanted to share with the group.
https://ukrainianinstitute.org.uk/boo...

[Sam]

Linda wrote: "I just finished the book and found an interesting review from the Ukranian Institute in London I wanted to share with the group.
https://ukrainianinstitute.org.uk/boo......"

Thanks for this Linda.

[LindaJ^]

Thanks Linda for sharing that review. Please join us on the spoiler thread.