My cousin lent me The Silence of Trees to read while I was on vacation and before I get into the book itself, a quick comment on Kindle lending – couldn’t have been easier. She sent me an email via Amazon with a link in it which I clicked and then requested the book to be downloaded to my Kindle. From the time she sent me the link, I had one week to claim the book and another two weeks to read it. Easy peasy.
And two weeks was plenty of time to read this book. I started it yesterday after lunch and finished it this morning before breakfast.
It’s the story of Nadya, and her life, traversing from the Ukraine, to Germany and finally settling in America (hoping that doesn’t give too much away). We start with her as a teen, witnessing some of the horrors of her life as she experiences them first hand and then join her again as she’s older, reliving more memories and learning more about her life as we go. Normally, I’m not a fan of these books that swap back and forth between past and present but I like how the author accomplished this, as a series of dreams and daydreams, interweaving the past with the present almost seamlessly. Some may find this disconcerting but I enjoyed it.
It’s a good story too, exposing me to an ethnic group, the Ukrainians, of whom I really had no knowledge of their suffering during WWII or their life here as immigrants, their history or their traditions. I actually wish I’d read this as part of my book club so that I’d have people to discuss it with now.
It’s a quick, interesting read and I enjoyed it. Oh, and it’s pretty cheap on Kindle right now, only $4.99 (free to those with Prime).