book recommendation

During my last trip to Poland, I bought this book.

I read it, I liked it and now I'm recommending it.

When I read these reviews on the book cover, I was sold:

“The fusion of Ukrainian incomers with conventional English Midland life is sharply comic and the prose is lyrical.”

“….hilariously and affectingly records the fall-out when an elderly Ukrainian widower long resident in Britain falls for a flamboyantly busty Russian gold-digger in search of a passport to prosperity.”

“The culture clash between eastern and western Europe so ripe for comic treatment is captured in this delicious story of sibling rivalry.”

{Am I the only one who loves to smell books?}

For me, the culture clash between eastern and western Europe is what had me hooked. Spending so much time in both (although Germany is more central Europe than western, I should say), I have mentally noted quite the list of differences, many of which were mentioned in this book. I found the alternate storyline (big sister vs. little sister) also compelling but then again, I find birth order psychology fascinating in general (The Birth Order Effect by Cliff Isaacson – perhaps the next book recommendation I’ll post).

Here are a couple of my favorite excerpts from the book:

There are ten years between my sister and me – ten years that gave me the Beatles, the demonstrations against the Vietnam War, the student uprising of 1968, and the birth of feminism, which taught me to see all women as sisters – all women except my sister, that is. I am forty-seven years old and a university lecturer but my sister’s voice reduces me instantly to a four-year-old.

“Don’t children in your country give their teachers apples?”, asks Anna. “Apples, never”, says Stanislav. “Vodka, yes”.

{In the words of Kathleen Kelly: Read it, I know you'll love it.}