Episodic Memory

"Episodic Memory" paints a picture of a Ukrainian village seen through the eyes of a woman remembering her childhood after her mother's death. The novel is so vivid it seems to be written in a kind of three dimensional ink. As you read this book you hear the news of Gary Powers's downed U2 crackling from a wireless under an Orthodox icon. You learn how to cure a gall bladder ailment by slaughtering thirty chickens, and meet the amateur peasant weatherman who builds an oversized dovecote to hide from a wife enraged by his meteorological obsession. The book was a worthy winner of Ukraine's Shevchenko award in 2008.