The Inspiration Behind THE CHILD FROM UKRAINE
Between the ages of 7 and 18, I lived with my Ukrainian grandmother Yulia, and I exclusively spoke Ukrainian with her, as she did not speak much English. We had mornings together, we had afternoons after school together when she would talk to me about gathering mushrooms in the local forest… we would watch soap operas together, she would cook for me and chase me around with a wooden spoon when I was naughty. This was the woman I remember: strong, determined, private and almost regal in the way she carried herself and the way she told me the stories from her farm in Synovydne, in the shadows of the Carpathian Mountains.
Would I ever understand her life as a woman, and as a complicated human being? I never thought I would, to be honest, and when I left for Middlebury College as an 18 year old I felt the distance even more than we had already established, as a ‘proper’ Ukrainian grandmother who never complained and never uttered a word about what she wanted to do in her life.
And then in 2015, my mother called me and revealed a secret that cracked open the very narrative that my grandmother had perpetuated for such a long time. I sat down with new information and realized that this was a woman who had literally blocked out trauma in order to survive as a woman and as a mother, during the war. The feelings in my center ran the gamut, swirling around with anger, confusion, sadness, and pride. I remember thinking: this is a woman with her own troubled past. And how many times do we have the chance to realize that the women in our family are human beings with their own past, their own decisions, their own trauma? I knew that I had a unique opportunity to write this down, but in a way that showed how uniquely built for challenges women are, in general.
I approached my novel in a historical fiction author’s focus, wrapped with a Ukrainian woman’s heart, because ultimately, what people want to learn about is the human story, not necessarily the extreme geopolitical details; the family story, the childhood, the parental sacrifice… those are the elements that stay long after you turn the last page.
I think this is why a lot of people reach out to me once they’ve finished the book: they tell me that they’ve been inspired to research their own family origins, their own stories of heritage and customs passed down to them over generations, never having noticed them much before but feeling compelled to understand them now. Politics and history will always have dark parts, but stories of sacrifice and loss and love and hope… these are the things that leave lasting impressions on future generations; these are the things we carry on with us, these are the lessons we want to learn from. Stories like these are what make us realize that our parents and grandparents weren’t just there to look after us, they were also human beings with their own baggage and their own scars of trauma.
In The Child of Ukraine, I wanted to share not only my own family story, and my own culture and heritage, but also the story that many women have to carry through war and displacement: the narrative that runs in parallel to the present and past, where women are seen as the guardians of the family story, the keepers of secrets, the ones who create an energy of love and defiance against all odds. This is where the book transcends even a label of ‘historical fiction about Ukraine’ and lands in a place where every single person, no matter culture or creed, can connect to the story of a woman making incredibly difficult decisions to protect her family and try and survive the odds. This is where my book, I feel, crosses over between commercial fiction, historical fiction, and women’s fiction; it provides a platform for all of these elements to converge so that so many people (even those who don’t typically read historical fiction) can connect on a human level.
And ultimately, that is why I write: the connection to humanity above all else. The world can be so complicated, but authors have a gift where they can make people feel seen and heard, if only for a little while.
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Tetyana Denford is a Ukrainian-American historical fiction author, poet, and translator for Frontline News.
She has been featured in The Telegraph, The New York Times, The Paris Review, and her first novel, Motherland, details her immigrant family’s escape from wartime Ukraine and was originally longlisted for the Reader’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards- it is currently being re-released in July 20th by the Hachette imprint Bookouture, renamed as The Child of Ukraine. Tetyana also hosts The Craft and Business of Books on YouTube— all about how to navigate the creative process of writing a book and understanding the publishing industry. She currently lives in New York.
https://www.instagram.com/tetyanawrites
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https://www.linkedin.com/in/tetyana-denford/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8NBxf5zjR6kVe0ZevZCtuw/
THE CHILD OF UKRAINE
Ukraine, 1940. She cups her daughter’s face with her trembling hands, imprinting it on her mind. ‘I love you. Be brave,’ she whispers through her tears, her heart breaking into a thousand pieces. Sending her child away is the only way to keep her safe. But will she ever see her again?
When war rips their country apart, Julia is sent away by her tearful parents in the dead of night, clutching her mother’s necklace and longing for one last embrace. But soon she is captured by Nazi soldiers and forced into a German labour camp, where behind a tall fence topped with cruel barbed wire, she has never felt more alone.
Just as she begins to give up on all hope, Julia meets Henry, a young man from her village who shares her heart full of dreams. And when she feels a fluttering in her belly that grows and grows, she longs to escape the camp and begin a new life with their child. But then Julia is forced to make a terrible choice. A choice no mother should have to make.
New York, 2011. With her heart shattered and her life changed forever by the shadows of war, as the years go by Julia thinks she will never be whole again. For decades she has been carrying a terrible secret with her, her every moment tainted by tragedy and loss since those dark days of the war.
But when she receives a phone call in the middle of the night, far away from the home and family she lost in the war, will Julia finally be reunited with the missing piece of her heart? Or is it too late for her wounds to heal?
Based on the incredible true story of the author’s grandparents, The Child of Ukraine is a breathtakingly powerful tale of love, loss and family secrets, perfect for fans of The Four Winds, The Last Green Valley, and The Nightingale.
This novel was previously published under the name Motherland.
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Category: Contemporary Women Writers, On Writing
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