Katya - Hardcover

Birdsell, Sandra

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1571310436 ISBN 13: 9781571310439

Publisher: Milkweed Editions, 2004

Synopsis

Katya Vogt is now an old woman, but the story of how she came to North America begins in Russia in 1910. As Katya’s story unfolds, it becomes clear that she is a survivor of revolution.

Born into a Mennonite community on the Russian steppes, Katya and her family live on the large Sudermann estate. Their religion, their traditions, and the luxurious green of their fields set them apart from the Russian workers who toil on the estate. Katya’s father, foreman of the estate, has been promised a land of his own to farm, but each year the Sudermanns put him off. As in a Willa Cather novel, the rhythms of the seasons are mirrored in the structures of a society in which everyone knows their place, even if they chafe against it. Then, in the wake of the First World War, revolution comes. First the German army, then anarchists, Bolsheviks, and Communists sweep across the land. Katya is tested by a world upended. In lucid, spellbinding prose, Birdsell vividly evokes time and place, and the unease that existed on the brink of revolutionary change.

About this title

From Booklist

An elderly resident of a nursing home in Manitoba, Canada, relates the story of her girlhood in czarist and revolutionary Russia to an anonymous interviewer. The daughter of the overseer of a prosperous Mennonite Russian estate, Katya Vogt naively believes the circumference of her relatively privileged position and lifestyle to be inviolate. Her fragile illusions are cruelly shattered when the Bolsheviks and the Russian peasantry aggressively turn against the affluent German-rooted Mennonite community. When most her family members and friends are murdered during the course of a brutal early-morning raid on the farm, she must learn some harsh lessons in survival to persevere in a world gone suddenly mad. This authentically detailed piece of historical fiction serves as an evocative reminder of a permanently vanished place, time, and way of life. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

Birdsell. . . said she was inspired as much by the news of the day as her own family history. -- Star Tribune, November 14, 2004

In Katya, Birdsell paints a meticulous portrait of a young girl -- The Historical Novels Review

In this compelling, beautifully descriptive novel, nature is a vital allegory for beauty, accomplishment, unity, and purpose. -- Library Journal, September 2004

It took seven years for Birdsell to research her novel. . . . Along the way, she learned something about grace. -- Pioneer Press, November 14, 2004

About this edition

• Publisher: Milkweed Editions
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1571310436
• ISBN 13: 9781571310439
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 364