Description
Attempting to navigate a closed country, to stay together, and to stay alive, Nadia and Taras must face secret police, soldiers, and fellow citizens forced to abandon charity and sometimes even humanity in the face of impossible hunger. Unsure who to trust and unable to find refuge, they search for somewhere, anywhere, where they can be safe.
Historical fiction at its finest, Five Stalks of Grain is powerfully written and beautifully illustrated, drawing on Ukrainian artistic traditions to tell a story of loss, grief, and hardship with delicate strength. It is a record of a time of profound suffering and a reckoning with the human cost of a tragedy shaped by politics and policy.
About the Author
Adrian Lysenko is a writer, editor, and journalist who has worked in Ontario, Alaska, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut. He is the winner of the Taras Shevchenko Emerging Writer's Competition and editor of the arts and culture alternative The Walleye Magazine. Adrian lives outside Thunder Bay, Ontario.
Ivanka Theodosia Galadza is a Ukrainian-Canadian illustrator. She holds a BFA in printmaking at Concordia University. Ivanka lives in Ottawa, Ontario.
Reviews
Two siblings scramble to survive during the Stalin-era 1932-1933 Ukrainian famine in this delicately drawn, tightly plotted historical graphic novel [...] Galadza's idiosyncratic layouts, such as repeated faces in various emotional states, also lend an unfinished, sketchbook feel that matches the account's emotional intensity and ambiguous ending. Genuine horror and anguish undergird this poignant evocation of atrocity." - Publishers Weekly
A "poignant (and, sadly, timely) work of historical fiction" - Quill & Quire
"This is raw talent showing through in the visual storytelling and it's powerful." - Toronto Star
Book Information
ISBN 9781773853758
Author Adrian Lysenko
Format Paperback
Page Count 152
Imprint University of Calgary Press
Publisher University of Calgary Press
Series Brave & Brilliant 29
Weight(grams) 584g
Details
Series: |
Brave & Brilliant 29 |
Imprint: |
University of Calgary Press |
