The Memory Keeper of Kyiv

Ideal for admirers of The Beekeeper of Aleppo and The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

Stalin's supporters marched throughout the Soviet Union in the 1930s, praising communal farming for its superiority. It was the first stage of a man-made famine that claimed over 4 million lives in Ukraine. Erin Litteken retells their narrative, inspired by the history that the Russian government rejects and the rest of the world forgets.

At sixteen years old in 1929, Katya is encircled by relatives and enamored with the lad who lives next door. There is minimal push to join the collective when Stalin's campaigners first show up in her village—just a few. However, neighbors quickly vanish, those who speak out are never seen again, and each day is unpredictable.

There is a cost to resistance, and when the countryside is overrun by famine, survival becomes more like a pipe dream than a reality. But love calls even in the deepest of circumstances.

A young widow finds her grandmother's notebook seventy years later, and reading it will uncover long-forgotten details about her family's dark history.

This is a tale about the human spirit's tenacity, love's ability to sustain us at our lowest moments, and the actual horror of the Holodomor.

"I never imagined the release of my novel on a past oppression of the Ukrainian people would coincide with such a parallel tragedy." Litteken Erin

A portion of the sales will be sent to the DEC Humanitarian Appeal for Ukraine.

May we always remember, lest the past happen again.