{"product_id":"9780349017334-rooster-house","title":"The Rooster House","description":"\u003cmeta content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA Ukrainian Family Memoir\u003cbr\u003eA riveting and deeply moving memoir that explores a Ukrainian woman's search for the truth behind an unmentioned family secret - and the Ukrainian people's complex relationship with their Soviet history\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eA RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e'\u003ci\u003eWild Swans\u003c\/i\u003e for Ukraine . rich and magnificent' \u003ci\u003eBookseller\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e'\u003c\/i\u003eA paean to hope and home. I loved it and it will haunt me' \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHELEN MACDONALD\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Marvellously vivid and often heartbreaking. I read it in a single enthralled sitting'\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMIRANDA SEYMOUR\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'An instant classic: an essential book in these darkening times'\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSOPHY ROBERTS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Compelling, beautifully written. an insight into the complexity of Ukraine's history'\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMERIEL SCHINDLER\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the Ukrainian city of Poltava stands a building known as the Rooster House, an elegant mansion with two voluptuous red roosters flanking the door. It doesn't look horrifying. And yet, when Victoria was a girl growing up in the 1980s, her great-grandmother would take pains to avoid walking past it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In 2014, while the Russian state was annexing Crimea, Victoria visited her grandmother in Bereh, the hamlet near Poltava that was a haven in her childhood. Just before the trip she came across her great-grandfather's diary, one page scored deep with the single line: 'Brother Nikodim, vanished in the 1930s fighting for a free Ukraine.' She had never heard of this uncle and no one - especially her grandmother - seemed willing to tell her about him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eVictoria became obsessed with recovering his story, and returned to her birth country again and again in pursuit of it. In the end, after years of sifting through Ukraine's post-Soviet bureaucracy, after travelling to tiny, ruined villages and speaking to the wizened survivors of that era, her winding search took her back to the place she had always known it would - to the Rooster House, and the dark truths contained in its basement.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Inspired by the author's love for her family, and peopled by warm, larger-than-life characters who jostle alongside the ghostly absences of others, \u003ci\u003eThe Rooster House\u003c\/i\u003e is at once a riveting journey into the complex history of a wounded country and a profoundly moving tribute to hope and the refusal of despair.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rarewaves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40886094233697,"sku":"9780349017334","price":13.84,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0092\/7504\/8033\/files\/orig_34009601.jpg?v=1753428289","url":"https:\/\/www.rarewaves.com\/products\/9780349017334-rooster-house","provider":"Rarewaves.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}