Five Great Books to read for Ukrainian Literature Day on Monday (Updated)

If you’re looking to participate in Ukrainian Literature Day on Monday but not sure what books  to read, here’s a list of some popular ones found in Canada’s most Ukrainian cities:

Kobzar’s Children: An anthology of short historical fiction, memoirs, and poems written about the Ukrainian immigrant experience. The stories span a century of history from 1905 to 2004; and they contain the voices of people who lived through internment as "enemy aliens," homesteading, famine, displacement, concentration camps, and this new century_s Orange Revolution. More than a collection, it is a social document that revives memories once deliberately forgotten (Children 14 and up).

Check the Library in: Toronto, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Vancouver or buy it now from Amazon.ca

Hope’s War: Kat’s hopes for peace are shattered when she finds her grandfather being interrogated by the RCMP. He is accused of being a policeman for the Nazis in WWII (Juvenile Fiction).

Check the Library in: Toronto, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Vancouver  or buy it now from Amazon.ca

In Fear of the Barbed Wire Fence: Canada’s first national internment operations and the Ukrainian Canadians, 1914-1920.

Check the Library in: Toronto, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Vancouver or buy it now from Amazon.ca

Lesia’s Dream: FIFTEEN-YEAR OLD LESIA can hardly bear it. She and her family must leave their beloved Baba in their Ukrainian hometown in order to flee to Canada. Dreaming of fields of wheat, wealth and security, Lesia looks forward to a life in Canada, free from poverty and rumours of war. But the 160 acres of hardscrabble prairie look nothing like the wheat fields of her dreams. And even though there is no fighting in her new country, the First World War follows them there.

Check the Library in: Toronto, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Vancouver or buy it now from Amazon.ca

Borderland: tells the story of Ukraine. A thousand years ago it was the center of the first great Slav civilization, Kievan Rus.

Check the Library in: Toronto (#2 #3), Edmonton, Winnipeg, Vancouver or buy it now from Amazon.ca

Taras pointed out the negative reviews and Russian-slant of this book so I’m pulling it and adding his recommendation.  You can read some quite positive reviews of other Ukrainian literature.

Big thanks to Nash Holos for helping me with this list and telling me about Ukrainian Literature Day!

Already read these books? Try reading:

Your Library not listed here?  Here are some links to more Ukrainian cities: Montreal, Saskatoon, Calgary, Halifax, Hamilton, St. Catherines, Oshawa, Regina & Thunder Bay.

Phew long post. Anything I missed out? Let me know in the comments.

2 thoughts on “Five Great Books to read for Ukrainian Literature Day on Monday (Updated)”

  1. Great post, Andrew! Fabulous list, and there are tons more, but this is a great start. Many thanks for providing links to all these books.

  2. I’m also going to note that for anyone in Toronto, you’ll find a bunch of Ukrainian books at the Toronto Reference Library in the 3rd and 5th floor of the stacks.

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