A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (Penguin Essentials)

An entertaining poignant story where many home truths revealed about human nature with humour and sympathy. The writing is energetic and resourceful creating wonderful picture of the various colourful characters.

Had things not become so ridiculous toward the end, I would have taken this generally well written book much more seriously.

The characters are interesting, as are their stories, and truth be told, I am still thinking about them and mulling over the book 2 weeks later. It's not what I thought it would be on many levels, but it is a good reminder of what Stalin did to the Ukraine and indeed,all of the former USSR.

While parts of the novel were amusing and charming, there is way too much stuff that bogs it down. I skipped all the tractor parts, and flipped through the last few chapters just to see what happened. I would not recommend this book at all. There are too many really good reads out there to waste time on this book.

Hilarious and, at times, heartbreaking. This is a beautifully written novel. The characters are memorable and wonderfully rendered. While the story is somewhat straightforward, the complexity of emotion isn't---the relationship between the sisters and the father's attempts to deal with loss. The author even manages to make the tractor history interesting and funny. I can't say enough good things about this novel. I've even bought two copies: one for myself and another for a friend recuperating from surgery.

This book was about history, care of the aged, family, genius and so much more. It was funny and sad. It was insightful and nonsensical. I couldn't get enough. I am giving a copy to my sister for Christmas.

I think it must have been the title that attracted so much attention to this book. The whole premise is based on an utterly unlikely scenario. Unlikely would be fine but unlikely and dull makes this a very forgetable experience.

This is a cautionary tale for anyone with an elderly male relative seeking a wife from another country. Two years after the death of his wife, Nikolai Mayevskyj, an 84-year old British resident and refugee from Ukraine, finds Valentina, a 36-year old Ukrainian with a young son. The relationship evolves from marriage to subsequent contentious divorce proceedings; meanwhile, Nikolai's daughters, previously estranged from each other, are reconciled through their shared hatred of the common enemy, Valentina, who is attempting to wrest control of Nikolai's meager fortune (surprise, surprise). The younger sister, Nadia, is also made aware of their family history through conversations with her sister and her father during the course of the novel, which includes Stalin's reign and the German invasion during World War II. Nikolai is writing a book entitled A Short History Of Tractors In Ukrainian (yawn), which is excerpted throughout the book. There are mildly humorous incidents and some heartbreakingly violent episodes between Valentina and Nikolai. The end of the book brings resolution and family restoration.

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian is an engaging tale focusing on family dynamics. Anyone who has ever encountered sibling rivalry (read: anyone with a sibling) will relate to the interations between Vera and Nadia, the book's protagonist. The sister's father, Nikolai, is an 84 year old widow who has decided that the cure for his lonliness is to marry a big busted, bleached blond, Ukrainian with a penchant for furs, jewels, peach nail polish and satin underwear named Valentina so that she can immigrate to the UK. Hilarity ensues as the sisters struggle to move past their strained relationship in order to rescue their father, and his bank account, from the gold-digging Valentina. This book will tug at your heartstrings and make you laugh out loud at the same time.

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian is the first novel by British/Ukrainian author, Marina Lewycka. Two years after the death of his wife, Ludmilla, eighty-four year old Nikolai Mayevskyj announces to his youngest daughter, Nadezhda (Nadia) that he is going to marry Valentina, a thirty-six year old Ukrainian divorcee with a teenaged son. As Nadia tries to reason with her determined father, she realises that if she is to prevent him being fleeced by this unscrupulous (bottle-)blonde bombshell, she will need to join forces with Vera, the older sister from whom she has been estranged since they disagreed over their mother’s will. In the process of trying to oust Valentina from their lives and have her deported, much of the family’s history is dredged up and Nadia discovers that what she has been told as a child was not necessarily accurate. This is a rollicking ride that encompasses boil-in-the-bag suppers, an undriveable Rolls Royce, a tomcat named Lady Di, a portable photocopier, a baby of unknown paternity, yoga, sheltered housing and some green satin underwear. Nikolai’s theory on the integral role of tractors in the development of Great Depression, Fascism in Germany and Communism in Russia will provide food for thought. The extracts from the book he is writing, the eponymous “A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian” are delightful. This book was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Orange Prize in 2005. A fun read with a happy ending.

5444. a short history of tractors in ukrainian, by Marina Lewycka (read 21 Feb 2017) This, despite its title, is a novel, published in 2005, the author being a woman who was born in a DP camp in Germany in 1946 to Ukrainian parents but grew up in and lives in England It tells of an 84 year old Ukrainian-born man whose wife of 60 years has died. He becomes besotted by a 36-year-old woman --Ukrainian, of course--who is in England with her 14-year-old son. They marry, tho the man's two adult daughters' rightfully intense disapproval. The new wife is deeply flawed woman . The book is often funny but one does sympathize with daughters and I was glad to see the story end satisfactorily. I say that since the daughters are right, and their father is funny but often wrong.

...sloughed-off memories, giving the family ghosts a kick up the backside."

I picked up this book at a thrift shop, choosing it (warily) because it contained "Ukrainian," the area where my German-Russian ancestors spent several generations before moving on to North Dakota, in the title. The last time I did that (choosing Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex), things didn't turn out well, but I loved this story. In fact, months after reading it, I can still vividly remember the characters:

Valentina, a buxom, curvaceous 36-year-old Ukrainian divorcee who is willing to marry a man nearly 50 years her senior for money and (p 3) "Passport.Visa. Work permit"
Stanislav, her 14-year-old son, who, it seems, is brilliant and so must attend a high brow school
Nikolai "Kolya," an 84-year-old Ukrainian man who loves Valentina (mostly for her bodacious breasts) even though she belittles him almost constantly. It's his efforts to create a "great work: A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian" that make up the title. When young, he worked (p 18) "as a draughtsman, in a tractor factory."
Nadezhda "Nadia," Kolya's 47-year-old daughter and the story's narrator
Vera, Kolya's 57-year-old daughter, a woman who lived an entirely different (and more difficult) life than her little sister Nadia.

When their mother died, Vera and Nadia squabbled about a small unexpected nest egg that she had accumulated (p 18), "But what should have been a gift became a curse, for, to our shame, my sister and I squabbled about how her little legacy should be divided." The siblings don't get along for several reasons beyond hard feelings about the inheritance, especially their different political and social beliefs, but are forced to work together to help their father disengage (they hope) from his gold digger wife. Best of the book is all the crazy goings-on between Valentina and Nikolai (her alternately asking him for money and then belittling him, him giving in to her and then dealing with his daughters' reactions), dialogue between the various characters, the sisters' relationship, and mentions of Stalin, the purges and the Gulag. In summary, great character development and dialogue in this neat, unique story about Ukrainian immigrants makes it a worthwhile read. Also good: The Twelve Little Cakes by Dominika Dery, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz and Coming Out of the Ice: An Unexpected Life by Victor Herman (audio version).

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka is NOT about tractors! It's actually on the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list, and it was this month's book club pick for the book club The Book Wheel & I host.

And it was such an interesting book. Check out the intro on the cover:

"Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a glamorous blond Ukrainian divorcee. He was eighty-four and she was thirty-six. She exploded into our lives like a fluffy pink grenade."
But the story is so much more than that. It's a story of a family, two sisters who have to save their dad from a terrible mistake (the fluffy pink Ukrainian named Valentina), and through this experience, they find a way to become closer.

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian is a great family story with a huge helping of crazy. And just a teensy bit of tractoring!

Anyone ever driven a tractor?

Thanks for reading,

Rebecca @ Love at First Book

I happened upon this book at a bed & breakfast where my boyfriend and I were staying to celebrate his birthday. There wasn't time enough to finish it but by the time we left for home, sixty-five pages in, I was already hooked. Luckily, the book was available at my local library.

For a comic novel, I didn't find it all that funny; I mean it wasn't a laugh riot. I'm certain I didn't laugh out loud even once. I certainly didn't find myself rolling on the floor. "A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian" is far more bittersweet than hilarious, even in its most hilarious moments.

But that is what makes it a more powerful novel than you might be led to expect.

The basic premise is this: An octogenarian widower decides to remarry. His two adult daughters are aghast. Their father is planning to marry a woman less than half his age, an opportunistic Ukrainian immigrant clearly looking to improve her station in life, enjoy all the material benefits of Western-style capitalism, and attain British citizenship for herself and her teenaged son.

And Nikolai's daughters are right: Valentina is a tart with a criminal bent, a thoroughly rapacious creature looking to take Dad for all he's worth. The problem is that Nikolai sees it too...he simply doesn't see it, as do his more rational-minded daughters, as a sufficient reason not to marry the alluringly zaftig, more importantly, large-breasted Slavic blonde bombshell. For supremely rational as an engineer Nikolai may be, he is also a poet, a romantic, and a World War II survivor of both Stalin's communism and Hitler's fascism. He knows what it is to be desperate and terrified to escape a bad situation and he can't help but sympathize with Valentina's plight. And, of course, there are also the large breasts.

Most of the humor in the book comes from Nikolai's almost Panglossian rationalization of Valentina's misdoings, his hope, in spite of his Schopenhauerian pessimism, that all will work out in the end, that love will prevail, that underneath those massive bosoms Valentina has a good heart.

His feuding daughters, Nadia--the narrator of "A Short History"--and her big sister Vera are convinced of just the opposite and they form an uneasy alliance to oust Valentina first from their vulnerable father's life and, when that fails and things go from bad to worse to worst of all, get her thrown out of the country entirely. Nadia has always suspected there is more to her family's troubled history and their harrowing escape from the horrors of war-ravaged Europe than she's been told and she's right. Vera knows. Ten years older, she experienced it firsthand, but she won't divulge what it is. As she advises Nadia in rare moments of sisterly candor, the past is best left buried in the past.

"A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian" is a tragicomic novel in the way human life itself is both comedy and tragedy. You scratch the surface and it can tickle but beneath the tickle there can be a universe of pain. As funny as it is serious, as engagingly well written as it is compulsively readable, "A Short History" is a truly unique novel that manages to be informative, entertaining, moving, and, yes, humorous, all at the same time. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

This is an extraordinary book. The author is gifted. You start out thinking it is one thing and then it is something else and then something else altogether. Layer upon layer of twists and turns and new realizations. It is timely in that an underlying theme is what happens when beneficial technology is modified for other purposes and then misused. Read this years back in a book group and have probably given away a few copies that have not been returned becuase they were passed on. The multi-layered themes make this a Book Group winner with much provocative discussion. The title is brilliant. I initially thought that it must be a mistake and that it was about the history of tractors in Ukrania, Not so. Read the book......several times if necessary. It's a masterpiece.

Ms. Lewycka's first book debuted to rave reviews in London, Paris, New York, and all points in between. Critics have described the book as funny, charming, ingenious, astonishing, and poignant. The characters are memorable, the plot unusual and unpredictable.

Nikolai Mayevskyj is 84-years old, a retired draftsman from a tractor factory who emigrated to U.K. from the Ukraine. The feisty widower occupies his agile mind by writing a book on the impact tractors had on Ukrainian society. Until her death, his

wife Ludmilla gardened, canned fruits and vegetables, saved her money, and stored food against the time her family might go hungry. Life is good in England, but the memory of suffering and starvation in Ukraina haunts them. Daughters Vera and Nadia are at odds, spending much of their time and energy arguing over dividing Ludmilla's estate, until a 36-year old Ukrainian femme fatale latches onto their fragile, elderly father.

Valentina is buxom, blonde haired, and determined to reap whatever harvests possible in the West. She wants money, marriage, vehicles, status and will do whatever it takes to achieve her goals. Valentina is seductive, manipulative, destructive, and cruel, but oddly endearing as she herds Nikolei towards the altar. Among the many men she romances, he's the only one willing to marry her. Vera and Nadia combine forces to rescue their father from Valentina's physical abuse and financial excesses.

Ms. Lewycka's novel is neither farce nor tragedy. It's a social commentary and testament to the human struggle to survive Stalinist Russia. Vera and Nadia remember a Ukrainian past better left unspoken. Nikolai shares a rich legacy through his manuscript. With keen intelligence and determination the Mayevskyjs survived Stalin and starvation, but will they survive Valentina's ruthless machinations?

In England eighty-four years old Ukrainian immigrant Kolya Mayevska has been a widower for two years. Though he appreciates poetry and tractors, he is lonely until he meets thirty-six years old big boobed Valentina, also from the Ukraine, at the Ukrainian Social Club. Valentina falls for the elderly man because she needs him to obtain papers so that she and her teenage son, whose father she divorced, can remain in England; his money is a needed bonus.

His two daughters, big sister Vera and little sister Nadezhda, who have always feuded over saving the world, but stopped talking after their mom Ludmilla died two years ago, are stunned by the usurper, who is younger than both of them and has boobs bigger than theirs combined. They immediately realize that the gold digger satin undies-wearing Valentina loves western luxuries a lot more than their dad. They agree they must stop the invader, but are not sure how as their dad spends his retirement pension on helping the sex siren settle in England. Especially galling is when he pays for her to have cosmetic surgery. Still they cannot stop the marriage from happening in spite of lawyers, immigration, and pregnancy.

This is an interesting family drama that is told by Nadezhda so the audience obtains only her perspective of what happened to her dad. The story line is intriguing as she and her sibling try everything to stop what they see is a disaster for their father in this May-December relationship. The frustration of failure adds poignancy to the story line though flashbacks to the death of their maternal grandmother in the Ukraine seem unnecessarily heavy-handed. Still overall this is an enjoyable look at an outsider invading a dysfunctional family causing enemy combatants to become close allies.

Harriet Klausner

This is the story of two estranged daughters who must band together when their elderly father suddenly decides to marry a Ukranian gold digger some fifty years his junior.

This book pulled me in immediately. Loved the quirky title, loved the beginning. Thoroughly enjoyed the first few chapters. But gradually, I lost interest. Such an unpleasant group of people - nobody to care about. The same conversations or jokes repeated over and over. So many lists: what was growing in the garden, lying on the floor. It became tedious. The reviews applaud this as a comic novel, and there are parts that are amusing, but it's very much black humor rather than the laugh out loud and read-excerpts-aloud-to-your-husband kind.

I know this book has been extremely popular and nominated for numerous awards which puts me very much in the minority but I just didn't get it.

Rumours have it that Marina Lewycka's first novel was initially placed under "agriculture" on the book shelves. Ukrainian tractors don't sound like a good topic for a highly enjoyable reading experience. Yet it is! While a history of tractors features in the narrative as a sub-stream, the story really is about family - history and complex relationships across generations and cultures. All those elements are packaged in a vivid, yet easy-going language, filled with humour and gentle satire.

The story is set in the Ukrainian immigrant community in England and centres around Nicolai, a 84 year old widower who has set his eyes on a thirty-something, full-bosomed blonde Valentina, a would-like-to-be immigrant. His intention to marry her gets his two daughters onto the scene, anxious to stop such a mismatch. Despite their intense efforts and intrigues, however, their attempt to obstruct doesn't succeed. "She exploded into our lives like a fluffy pink grenade..." Written from the perspective of Nadia, the younger of the two daughters, and through her discussions with "Big Sis" Vera, the reader follows the upheavals that this new reality in their fathers' life creates. Suspicions are rife that Valentina has plans beyond looking after a new husband and that Nicolai is being exploited in more ways than one. The sisters themselves carry baggage from the past that they need to put aside or resolve in order to show a united front to their father's situation. In the process, events from the family history come to light that explain to some degree their different approaches to the problem at hand and different relationship each has had with their father and their late mother.

At one level Lewycka's novel is just a fun read, a family saga that shines with lively dialogue and witty comments on the reality of the lives of the central characters. At another level, she seamlessly integrates her reflections on aging and the needs and vulnerabilities of seniors and the challenges these present for the next generation to handle. Finally, through flashbacks into Nikolai's life, the author provides the reader with insights into the family's background that makes the characters into who they have become. Nicolai and Valentina in particular come to live in the story and one can find parallels to people we all know. All the parts are expertly joined so that these elements don't feel like overwhelming the primary storyline. A highly recommended book. [Friederike Knabe]

Just from reading the opening chapter, I got captivated like never before. Reading it further captivated me even more and the end of the book proved that it is an amazing story. A story in a story, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian captured the depth of characterization that produced an amazing octogenarian in love with a woman in her prime, a born survivor who is determined to make use of any advantage to secure a better future for her son; and the pragmatism of two conflicting sisters who are determined to 'rescue' their father. Enlightening, hilarious, gracious, gave and tender in turns, this fascinating story gives us an insightful view of the lives of those trying to make a new life as refugees or exiles.
I would recommend this book to any lover of good literary works. There are many lessons to learn from this book. Explored in a similar manner in The Lincoln Lawyer (Mickey Haller) and Triple Agent, Double Cross, it is a fascinating angle. I enjoyed reading this book, so if you are undecided, my advice is that you should pick it up and do some reading that you will remember afterwards as a worthwhile story.

Dear Ms. Lewycka:

I realize that A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (though a key to your success as an author) is an old story to you and doubtless you have passed onto current projects, but having just read it, your book is new to me, leaving me surprisingly stirred up.

I take issue with most people's view that it is amusing and humorous, as if that were your primary intent; I find the humor more as a camouflage to cloak the deeper issues of your story, in a more poignant interpretation. You see, I recognize a lot of my family history reflected in your chapters. Substitute Hungary for Ukraine, reverse the role of the father and mother and presto, you have my story, caught between the old and a new world, feeling a little uneasy in both. I too was born on the cusp of war/peace, during the last bombing raid, according to my mother.

I am an author myself with 12 books on line and know that any story is a collaboration between the author and the reader. In fact I am writing this review mostly to crystallize my reactions to your book. I was hugely struck by Nadia's quest to understand the hidden history of her parents, silenced by the fear of terror, the horrors of the way years and the struggles to achieve a new life in a new country. As her, I inherited my parent's cultural heritage, their hopes and anxieties, and your book made me conscious just how much. People like to think of a book as a pictures in words, but for me, Short History was more of a mirror. Thank you.

Paul Telegdi a writer writing, reading...

This book has won an award for comic fiction; but, richly comic though the writing is, the story is for the most part essentially a tragic one. I am reminded of Horace Walpole's dictum, `This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.' Nikolai, an 84-year old Ukrainian-born widower who has lived in England since 1946 as an escapee from Stalinist Russia, marries a much more recent immigrant from the now independent Ukraine: Valentina, 36 years old, who is here on a visitor's visa and marries him only to be allowed permanent residence and to gain access to his money and his house. She exploits and bullies the poor and near senile old man mercilessly. His two daughters, Vera and Nadia, are outraged. They have fought with each other all their lives, and they still do; but they make common cause to try to rescue their father and what might be left of their inheritance. In the course of the story we are given glimpses of the history of Ukraine, the terrible sufferings of the civil war, the terror and the famine of the Stalin years, the Second World War, a labour camp; also of the development of tractors - those symbols of the collective farms, of which the old man, a former engineer, is writing a history. Towards the end, the book becomes a near farce, and then modulates into a mellower ending than we had any reason to expect. We are even allowed for a moment to see the monstrous gold-digger as herself a victim, too. The descriptions of the individuals and the relationships between them is excellent, the somewhat fractured English spoken by the old man and the even more primitive but expressive mauling of it by Valentina is spot-on. A memorable book.

Maybe because I grew up in a neighborhood of Eastern European immigrants, and the language is so convincingly natural and hilarious without seeming to try to be, and the behavior so maddeningly just like maddening people, I laughed even while I shared the indignation of the narrator as I marveled at the clever turnings of the well-constructed plot, and was glad to join the narrator in feeling contented at the end of it all. It is a wonderful story with insights into human psychology told with irony and comic humor and a great eye for telling detail. And like the best of literature, it invites you into a world of thinking and acting that, while different from yours, illuminates the commonalities.

"Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a glamorous blond Ukrainian divorcee. He was eight-four and she was thirty-six. She exploded into our lives life a fluffy pink grenade, churning up the murky water, bringing to the surface a sludge of sloughed-off memories, giving the family ghosts a kick up the backside."

When you hear that a book was nominated for the Man Booker Prize and short-listed for the Orange Prize, you expect a work of serious fiction; but when you read a book with a first paragraph like the one above, you know you're in for a treat.

Marina Lewycka's debut novel is amazingly sophisticated. Filled with a cast of full-bodied characters, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian is about family struggles as banal as sibling rivalries and as serious as surviving forced labor camps in Eastern Europe. Clearly informed by her work in elder care, one of the novel's themes is the challenge of aging respectfully.

The star of the novel is eccentric eighty-four year old Ukranian emigre Nikolai Mayevskyj. His middle-aged daughters, Vera and Nadia, are in the middle of a long-time feud made all the worse by the death of their mother and the settling of her estate. All that changes when their father announces his intention to remarry. The woman in question is young enough to be his granddaughter and is still married to man in Ukraine. The sisters must put aside their grudges and work together to help their father maintain himself when the marriage--and his life--spin out of control.

While the novel is laugh-out-loud funny, Lewycka uses humor to deal with many serious issues. For example, much of the conflict in the novel has less to do with personality and more to do with disparate socio-cultural environments in which the characters were raised.

Armchair Interviews says: In A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, Marina Lewycka has created a complex, but eminently readable novel.

"Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a glamorous blond Ukrainian divorcee. He was eight-four and she was thirty-six. She exploded into our lives life a fluffy pink grenade, churning up the murky water, bringing to the surface a sludge of sloughed-off memories, giving the family ghosts a kick up the backside."

When you hear that a book was nominated for the Man Booker Prize and short-listed for the Orange Prize, you expect a work of serious fiction; but when you read a book with a first paragraph like the one above, you know you're in for a treat.

Marina Lewycka's debut novel is amazingly sophisticated. Filled with a cast of full-bodied characters, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian is about family struggles as banal as sibling rivalries and as serious as surviving forced labor camps in Eastern Europe. Clearly informed by her work in elder care, one of the novel's themes is the challenge of aging respectfully.

The star of the novel is eccentric eighty-four year old Ukranian emigre Nikolai Mayevskyj. His middle-aged daughters, Vera and Nadia, are in the middle of a long-time feud made all the worse by the death of their mother and the settling of her estate. All that changes when their father announces his intention to remarry. The woman in question is young enough to be his granddaughter and is still married to man in Ukraine. The sisters must put aside their grudges and work together to help their father maintain himself when the marriage--and his life--spin out of control.

While the novel is laugh-out-loud funny, Lewycka uses humor to deal with many serious issues. For example, much of the conflict in the novel has less to do with personality and more to do with disparate socio-cultural environments in which the characters were raised.

Armchair Interviews says: In A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, Marina Lewycka has created a complex, but eminently readable novel.

One of the characters, Valentina, is actually sort of awful and teeters on the edge of being a caricature, but then it is hard to portray characters with a less-than-perfect mastery of English without them sounding either a little simplified or larger than life. One gripe I had was that the first person narrator seems to be almost omnipresent, the author sometimes seeming to be pulling back to correct herself with "at least this is how my father told it" or something of that sort. At times the prose was a little clunky, while other passages were very nicely done.

Around halfway through I was rather forcing myself to continue with the book for the sake of completion, but that said at a later point I was gripped and eager to discover the fate of various characters. The last third of the book was very absorbing, and I would have liked to have known more about why the narrator developed her obsession to follow Valentina.

Overall original and quite entertaining....

Lewycka, who has written several nonfiction books about senior citizens' issues, has written a lyrical and engaging novel about growing old disgracefully and the bonds of sisterhood.

This book, first and foremost, is hilarious. There are dozens of scenes that made me laugh out loud. First are the relationship between Nadezhda's father, Nikolai, and his tarty Ukrainian bride, Valentina. Valentina is a scene stealer. She is gruff and greedy, venal and violent. She is a larger than life character, and the white whale to the sisters' Ahab. Nikolai himself is given to melodrama and long winded speeches about tractors and engineering. Vera, Nadya's big sister, also provides a great deal of comic relief, with her jaundiced and acerbic takes on the situation with Valentina and her father. It is a bit like reading a toned down version of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding".

Lewycka also explores sibling rivalry and the relationships of estranged siblings. At the beginning of the story, Nadezhda and Vera are fighting like cats and dogs. Every encounter ends in harsh words and slammed phones. As the book progresses, the sisters steadily get closer, having been united by the common desire to get Valentina deported. As Vera and Nadezhda talk more and more, they get closer. Nadezhda finds out why her sister is the way she is, and ultimately becomes close to Vera. By the end of the book, they are cordial and even a little warm towards each other. Lewycka masterfully handles this relationship, never letting it become cloying or saccharine. It is a touching undercurrent to the outlandish events that take center stage.

Finally, Lewycka explores the differences in first and second generation immigrants. Nikolai and Vera are first generation Ukrainian immigrants, while Nadezhda is firmly British in her outlook. The sisters have had markedly different childhoods. Vera endured life in a camp during World War II, while Nadezhda was born in the U.K. It is this difference that causes the chasm between the sisters. But, Lewycka does a good job of showing how Nadezhda slowly but surely begins to understand her sister's life and her outlook on life. We also get to hear the story of Nikolai and Ludmilla, the womens' parents. Their lives in the Ukraine, through pre-Stalin days and the horrors of the purges are explored in depth. It speaks to Lewycka's skill as a writer that these interludes perfectly fit into the narrative and help the reader understand Nikolai's motivations.

A great book for someone looking to laugh and learn about immigrants.

Moderately entertaining novel, however it certainly isn't extremely funny' as the cover blurb states. Actually it is quite a sad tale of an elderly widower trying to get one more chance of happiness by an entering an ill-advised marriage with a pneumatic 36 year-old blonde from his homeland.
His two feuding daughters start to pull together to save their father. And as the book continues we learn of the terrible lives of the father and elder daughter in World War 2 Ukraine...
Parts of the narrative involving the dreadful Valentina come across as a somewhat unbelievable and over-the-top farce; maybe it would have been better if it was written as either a tragic or comic novel and not an uneasy mix of the two. But it kept me reading to the end.

Part comic, part immigrant drama, Marina Lewycka's "A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian" is a nice novel about family and its identity and responsibilities. Set in Peterborough in the early 1990s the story is narrated by Nadia, who, like the author is the child of Ukrainian refugees, born in the end of Second World War, and therefore as `peace baby'. They grew up in the adoptive country and know only by stories the problems parents and older siblings faced during the conflict.

Nadia's father, Nikolai, seems to get over his wife's death some time ago, and has arranged to marry an Ukrainian immigrant half his age. To Nadia and her sister, this woman is clearly setting up for their father. And they try to talk him off. This is what happens most of time in the narrative.

However funny and interesting "A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian" is, it lacks some sort of development both in characters and narrative. Most of the time, people are just talking, and events are filtered through Nadia's eyes. Actually more than half of the book people talk by phone. Therefore, Lewycka establishes an easy pattern she follows. Every segment there is an introduction, and then the conversation.

It is a relief when this pattern is broke and the narrative floats in another form. What the writer lacks in narrative skills she compensates in tone, mood and feeling. This novel clearly captures what was to be an Eastern European immigrant. Nadia listens from her father and sister how they managed to survive war and to adapt in the new home.

Nikolai is writing a book called "A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian" and his book inside the narrative, clearly, is not just his book. This is some sort of metaphor that Lewycka uses to dig deeper inside something else, and writes about the human condition and our relationship - sometimes positive, sometimes negative - to machinery and other beings.

Nominated for the Man Booker Prize, this remarkable first novel concerns the daughters of Nikolai Mayevskyj, an elderly Ukrainian immigrant living in England. Nadezhda and her older sister Vera are not on speaking terms, but the impending marriage of their recently widowed father to a thirty -six year old Ukrainian bimbo brings them together.
When not mooning over his sweetheart, Nikolai is writing a history of the tractor, pining for an Ukraina that he left sixty years ago, and arguing politics with left leaning Nadezhda.
The bimbo is unsurprisingly awful and has the tenaciousness of the desperate. Disengaging her from their father is not as easy as the girls anticipated, and their frantic efforts take on a decidedly comedic tone. In between acts of burglary and writing anonymous letters to the Home Office, Nadezhda and Vera develop a wary partnership which leads some surprising revelations about the family's experiences during the Second World War.
This is a truly original story, poignant and funny, of the immigrant experience, sibling rivalry, and the elusiveness of family memories.

Between the usual solid review from Mr. Fleisig and the catchy title, the novel called out for a spin. Ms. Lewycka has made a fine contribution to the vast collection of Russian fiction, although of course "Russian" doesn't really apply here. The insights into the old days in the home country, the transition during the war, and views into the immigrant experience in England and life in recent Ukraine were welcome and usually interesting.

The author combined a decent amount of humor (amusing at times, occasionally funny) with what in reality is a serious theme. You can see her experience with the care of elderly in the family dynamics that drive the novel. Papa struggles with old age while being mentally alert enough for technical discussions and his book-within-a-book on tractors. His daughters in turn wrestle with how to handle Papa, compounded of course by the plan to marry the mismatched Valentina and the turmoil that inevitably follows.

Dysfunction takes over and there the novel had less appeal for me. Some of the action seemed too forced, or perhaps it's that I don't really like reading about major dysfunction and bad behavior and people doing stupid things. I preferred hearing more about the family's background and watching the younger daughter (and narrator and native English) learn more about the past, including that of the older sister, and for the two of them gradually to come to some accommodation.

A book-within-a-book can be a real dud, just as with a play-within-in-play. The essay on tractors worked better than one might expect, although I can understand if a reader finds it unattractive. Similarly, a reader with little interest in the former Soviet Union or its people will not appreciate one of the novel's strengths. Therefore, I recommend this more for a specific audience and pass as an option for the general reader or a book club.

_A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian_ was recommended to me on the premise that an octagenarian Ukrainian immigrant marries a much younger, glamourous Ukrainian woman; hilarity ensues. Is it a love match, or is the younger woman merely a gold-digger seeking citizenship and the "good life" in the West? How the geriatric widower and his two well-meaning middle-aged daughters see the relationship tells much about their pasts: the time and circumstances in which they grew up and where they are at that particular moment in their lives.

A good deal of the story plodded along - as a previous reviewer noted, it would have made a much better short story than a book - I became increasingly frustrated as the story developed, although this may have been intentional, Lewycka wanting me to empathize with the well-meaning (if exasperated) daughters. The conclusion was rewarding, and I felt was the strongest writing of the book as well - Lewycka quite movingly shows the internal mechanisms that all families face: sibling rivalry, the struggles of caring for elderly parents, differences in political and social outlook - with the additional burden of cultural differences between those born in Ukraine and those born in Britain.

While some may apparently found it funny, I didn't think so; perhaps the relationships between characters and the events were a little too close to home for me to find any humor in them. (Or maybe I don't have as good a sense of humor as I thought I did.) A good diversionary read, but not a great book.

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian is not a very promising title for a novel, but it does grab your attention, I'll give it that. I had passed this book up in bookstores and online several times in the past few years, but finally my curiosity got the best of me when I found it at a University Womens Ass'n book sale last year. And during Christmas week I finally picked it up and read it. What a wonderful book this is! I can easily understand why it has won prizes and been translated into over twenty languages. Because, although this is ostensibly a book about a Ukrainian immigrant family living in England, and about an octogenarian widower who falls for a thirty-something stacked blonde bombshell, and about a festering sibling rivalry between the man's two grown daughters, and about British bureaucracy and ... Well, enough, I suppose. The truth is, this is a wonderfully executed book about human nature itself. Nikolay, Valentina, Vera and Nadezhda are all characters who will resonate for a long time after you've finished reading this book. What starts out to be simply funny and quaint, turns gradually into something deeper and much darker. Family secrets long kept begin to bubble to the surface, as the narrator/protagonist Nadya begins to learn more and more of her family's pre-war and wartime history - unhappy and often brutal stories that her parents and her sister Vera (ten years older than Nadya) have kept from her. There is much here that will make you laugh, certainly. But there is even more here that will make you think about what the human animal is capable of in every respect. Most of all you will learn about what it means to be a survivor, as does Nadya, the post-war baby whose chosen name represented hope for a better future. This is a terrific book. I recommend it highly. - Tim Bazzett, author of SOLDIER BOY: AT PLAY IN THE ASA

At first, the title of this book drew my attention. Then the writing drew me in. But, ultimately, the story of estranged sisters who make amends while caring for their aged cantankerous father won my praise. Anyone who has ever pined for a better connection with a sibling might appreciate and learn from this tale of jealousy, commitment, and love.

Although this is Marina Lewycka's first novel, she has six previous books to her credit - and when you see their titles ("Choices for the Carer of an Elderly Relative," "What to Do and Who to Turn to (Caring in a Crisis)" and others from that ilk), you can clearly see that her experience in elder care is what has shaped the outlines of this work. But embedded in here are a number of interesting tales: there's the father getting old and rather irrational and how the family copes with that; there's the Eastern European young bride and the resulting West/East culture clash; there's the Big Sister / Little Sister rivalry (which takes an expected turn at the end when Bis Sister's secrets are slowly revealed); and there's something quite unexpected about World War II and its effects on families.

In fact, the book's real triumph is how it sneaks up you. Surely, the reason "Tractors" got shortlisted for prestigious prizes is its stealthy power: you think you're reading a tale about a dysfunctional family and Lewycka seems like she's playing it for laughs; then, over the course of 300 pages, the story isn't the funny ha-ha you thought it would be. Very deftly, Ms. Lewycka has steered you into something quite more profound.

Marina Lewycka has written an intriguing novel about an aged father, his two warring daughters, his December-May marriage, and his treatise on tractors. Two years after the death of their mother, the daughters have to join forces to save their father from his much younger, green-card seeking wife, whom they are convinced is using him, and may be abusing him.

Nadia, the younger, resents Vera's deathbed pressure on their mother to alter her will in Vera's favor, but that's only the most recent excuse for them to be at odds. There are also family secrets to be revealed about their parents' courtship and marriage, and the years spent in a labor camp before liberation and a new life in England. Vera was the war child; Nadia the peace child, and no one will tell her what happened there and why her father is so angry with Vera.

Lewycka explores whether or not the truth is always what one needs to hear. She has a talent for bringing out the humor amid the pathos of the declining health and life of the father, and the senseless ongoing battle between the daughters. I found a similarity to Ann Tyler in the plot and style of writing, which is not a bad thing.

This book starts with a broadly comic familiar premise (86-year old, recently widowed, Ukrainian emigre Nikolai marries a blond gold-digger 50 years his junior, to the horror of his two daughters) and you can't help wondering if you've signed up for a predictable romp, maybe spiced up with some Ukrainian local color. Fortunately, Marina Lewycka has something more interesting in store than low comedy and lazy stereotypes and the story that unfolds is more nuanced than its initial premise would suggest, while still managing to be quite funny.

Although Valentina, the blonde with the boobjob, is indeed a gold-digger, Lewycka is smart enough not to demonize her altogether. Furthermore, Vera and Nadezhda, Nikolai's adult daughters, are no saints either - they have issues of their own and as the story unfolds it's a tossup as to whose behavior is more reprehensible. The marriage of Nikolai and Valentina sours once money runs low, and Vera and Nadezhda must put their own differences aside to look out for their father's welfare as relations between him and Valentina careen from bad to worse. Against this background Lewycka also weaves in the story of Nikolai's early life in the Ukraine. The result is a surprisingly moving account of a family's dealing with a parent who refuses to grow old gracefully.

This book reminded me strongly of Mark Haddon's second book, "A Spot of Bother" - it has the same kind of sprawling plot, idiosyncratic and exasperating characters, and is highly readable. A memorable first novel.

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian contains many excellent elements. The author's sense of the diction of Eastern Europeans both in and out of their own language is excellent. Her understanding of the depths of passion and desperation they have felt in their history over the past century is acute. The contrasts she provides between their lives and the lives of modern day Englishpeople are apt.

Two flaws, though, marred the book for me. First, the plot is obvious and telegraphed. Old, vulnerable man is taken advantage of by scheming, insincere, unfaithful woman with large [...]. Guess what happens? Guess how his daughters respond. Guess whether he eventually comes to his senses. Do you really need to read the book to find all this out?

The other is that the character of Vera, the older daughter, is hardly a character at all. Seen almost entirely through the eyes of the narrator, younger daughter Nadia, her reactions to nearly everything are trite and over the top.

The remarkable thing about this book is that Lewycka almost overcomes both faults. She tries mightily to put some humanity into Valentina, the golddigger, mainly through the device of bringing back her ex-husband from Ukraine. He is a marvelous character and the novel breathes whenever he is present in it. But eventually when the two return to Ukraine with their two children, driving a comical Rolls Royce with a large electric cooker (i.e., stove) on top, having stolen Nadia's mother's pressure cooker (which Nadia does nothing to stop) you can tell that there would be no redemption, she was going to do it again when she got her figure back after her pregnancy, leaving him with an infant he hadn't fathered.

Lewycka also tries to redeem Vera by hinting at a vague trauma in a Nazi work camp where she was the youngest inmate, something involving cigarettes which neither Vera nor Nikolai will describe to Nadia. But their reconciliation in the light of this after the father moves out of the family home seems just too contrived. Often we wish novels would be edited better and made shorter. Perhaps this one could have benefited by being edited to make it just a tad longer, so that Vera could have been fleshed out more.

The book is short, and even with just three stars, I recommend it for its veracity of tone and its moments of wit. I just wish it could have overcome its flaws.

This is very likely the funniest book I have ever read--and I've read quite a few books. It has little to do with tractors and a lot to do with the mysterious Homo Slavicus: the peculiarly Slavic sins, delights, and outrageously non-Anglo approach to everything in life, from tea to sex to money and the rest of the world. I envy the people who will be reading it for the first time!

Marina Lewycka appears to have scored a surprise hit with her debut novel with the unlikely title of "A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian" (SHOTU). Looking on the surface like some lightweight bit of fluff and not the most obvious choice of titles for the critics' list, SHOTU nevertheless made the Booker longlist last year and is still selling enough copies to remain on Britain's Top 10 bestsellers list. So what's the magic behind this sleeper's staying power ? You've got to read it to get it.

SHOTU proves that award winning books don't have to make heavy reading. A good book makes compelling reading if it succeeds in making an instant connection with the reader and SHOTU does exactly that ! It is comic and at the same time tragic, seemingly contradictory qualities that best describe the complexities of life and the unknowable mysteries of the human condition. Two sisters, Vera and Nadia, opposite in many ways and hostile to one another for reasons anyone growing up in families will be able to understand, put aside their differences to save their foolish ageing father - and their own inheritance - from the grasping hands of a voluptuous gold digger from Ukraine. Can anyone ask for a more realistic premise for a big time domestic shoot-out ?

But what saves SHOTU from the melodrama of your average chick lit is that straightforward as the designs and motives of the grasping Valentina are with regard to her marriage to Nikolai the old professor, it is the moral ambuiguity of the entire situation, including the old man's right to a last stab at feeling alive (however foolish it may seem), the sisters' psychological and material self interests in their united show of loyalty to their deceased mother's memory, not to mention the defence of their own inheritance, etc etc, that continues to intrigue and wrestle with our conscience as we follow the unrelenting attempts of the sisters to inflict the mortal blow on the sham marriage of Valentina to their father.

Issues relating to immigration, the plight of new settlers in a foreign country, the debasement of values and standards of those who have escaped the horrors of tyranny, etc are given a light handed treatment by Lewycka, whose clear and easy writing style is as deceptively simple as it is relevant and true. The history of tractors figures in the story only in so far as it demonstrates man's ability to choose to use technology for either good or evil. Good or bad, life is a bit like that.

Marina Lewycka's prose has a lovely style that makes SHOTU a thoroughly delightful read. It'll make you laugh and cry and set you thinking. Even Valentina - the official villain of the piece - demands a little sympathy. Would we choose or act any differently in her situation ? One of the best reads from the critics' selection last year. I can't recommend it highly enough.

When the Ukranian narrator's 84 year old father goes borderline senile and falls head-over-heels in love with a young voluptuous gold-digger, lots of hilarious plotting ensues among his two daughters to dissuade the marriage.

What follows is some delectable social satire and a healthy dollop of irony in a style redolent of the Milan Kundera of yore. The author's reminiscing about an eastern Europe life of not too distant past ('to survive is to win') is as entertaining as it is informative. Characters are sketched with warmth and wit. The prose is effortless, and it never gets indulgent despite its pithy social commentary.

At the heart of the story are the many problems that urban emigres face but seldom confront. What do we with people we are *supposed* to like but don't trust or understand? To what extent is our identity based on our history? Can we escape it? If trapped by our pasts, can we spin our own personal meanings?

The title may escape the unvigilant, but it is emblematic of the author's poky metaphors. A tractor--ordinarily a very constructive, peaceful vehicle--can be readily transformed into a tank during times of strife. Which is a lot like us humans morphing into our resilient selves against the muddle of difficult lives. I feel that somewhere at the heart of this clever novel lies the wistful idea that if the world could be run by grown-ups, tanks could just as easily be turned back into tractors.

A fascinating read, so accessibly written you could gulp it in one sitting.

I was clearly supposed to really like this book. A very good friend gave me my copy. I arrived at my sister's house to find that she had set it aside for me. And I did like it-- well enough, I guess. I didn't love it, and despite the billing as comedy I didn't find it very funny.

The most interesting thing about the book is its observations about the experience of families who have gone through very difficult times. The relationship between the sisters was particularly well-done. There's something about how shared experiences can be lived so differently which is rarely handled well in books about siblings-- particularly sisters.

Their father, Nikolai, is more painful than funny. His stubbornness and his childishness will hit rather close to home for anyone who has had to deal with an aging and ill parent. His marriage to the bombshell Valentina is appropriately catastrophic.

All in all, even though there were parts of the novel which I liked a great deal, I would tend to side with the readers that it would have made a stronger short story than it did a novel. The memories of the past would have been stronger had they been hinted at or implied, and frankly the strength of the novel is in its present. I found myself singularly uninterested in the book within a book which was clearly supposed to provide much of the emotional depth.

Not a bad read, not a great one.

I found this book quite refreshing after a couple of recent bad picks. It concerns a love-sick (or lust-sick) 84 yr old male immigrant from the Ukraine who is marrying a thirty-four yr old immigrant who merely wants money and a British passport (in no particular order). The man's two daughters, now grown up in Britain with families of their own, are obviously very against the woman and the marriage. That's the humour side of it. There is a darker side to the story shown as flashbacks to the man and one of his daughters earlier lives in the Ukraine but not too much- just enough to give depth to things. The book is an easy read, a page turner, refreshingly different and delves into subjects like relationships between siblings and dotty old parents. I would highly recommend it.

After hearing so many good things about this novel, I was very disappointed. I didn't think it was remotely funny, nor that memorable or particularly well-written. Silly is more like that. Plus, the plot felt like a warmed-over rehash of other weird family tales that I've read before. Too many literary clichés and not enough ingenuity or craft. Honestly, the appeal of the novel totally stumped me.

The wonderfully offbeat title and faux-primitive cover (even printed on socialist utility paperboard in the British edition) give a very good idea of the humor of this little book, and on this level it doesn't disappoint. Two sisters put aside their decades of quarreling to save their elderly father (an engineer obsessed with writing a History of Tractors) from marriage to a blowsy Ukrainian woman less than half his age, who sees his meager savings as her passport to the luxuries of the West. Lewycka is especially funny imitating the fractured English of either of these characters (the father himself is a postwar refugee from the Ukraine), and her ability to contrast the attitudes of the different generations of immigrants is right on target, as is her picture of middle-class life in the English provinces. The story skips deftly from one incident to another in a "You won't believe what she's done NOW" fashion, and its slight repetitiveness is offset by the author's ability to create interesting supporting characters and to keep shifting the balance of sympathies between the major ones.

Lewycka has also been praised for her skill at using this little cautionary tale to reflect the family's sufferings in the political upheavals before and during WW2, but there I find her less successful. The quotations from the father's History (which turns out to be as much about tanks as tractors) are too oblique as a reference to the past, and the specific details of persecution and life in the camps come too late to really illuminate the modern story. But this is a most enjoyable book in its own terms, and any historical resonance is a bonus.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and am wondering why it took me so long to get to it. It was an funny & unusual story, with some interesting (though not entirely unexpected) events. There were several plotlines going on at once, and I liked how they all worked independently to some degree, but were interwoven so that all parts were connected - some sooner than others - and the conclusion made sense. It's a well written book...definitely worth the read.

Anybody who took social or political views that drove their parents into a loathing paroxysm will find some resonace here. Anybody who has seen a parent lose control of reason--who refuses to listen to logic--will be humming right along with this story. The advertising for this book makes it out to be a comedy. It had me smiling in places, but it is a touching account of an immigrant family "finding it's way." It goes way beyond comedy. In an interesting manner the author brings in bits of the sixties, Stalin's reign and World War II. All these bits of history shape the family.

Further, an elderly father is writing a history of tractors and snippets of his work appear throughout the novel. Normally, I wouldn't read a work on mechanical engineering, but there is just enough here to be interesting without being tedious.

My only criticism is that some tightening would have helped, especially in the first half of the book. The villan is totally wicked and her vile nature is somewhat over-articulated. I got a little tired of wincing.

This book IS obliquely about the history of tractors, but it is also about the secrets, the weaknesses and the strengths of a Ukrainian family who settle in Britain, told at times in a concise, first person 'Ukrainian/Russian' style (eg no prepositions). Two sisters come together over their 84 year old father's doomed marriage to a scheming 36 year old Ukrainian with obvious assets. The story is poignant in that it deals with lost opportunities and gross injustices which makes it feel one of the most 'real' or 'come alive' books I have read for a while. I felt sad turning the last page as the characters, although drawn simply are nailed accurately and recognisably. The warmth behind the book lifts the spirits, especially on a cold, wet day (which is all this book takes to read).

I highly recommend this delightful, fast-reading novel, which should appeal to just about any reader. There are already several excellent reviews posted for this wonderful novel. So I needn't go into detail of the story. In a nutshell, it's about two sisters, Nadia and Vera, Ukrainian immigrants who have not spoken to eachother in years. They are compelled to join forces when their doddering widowed dad introduces his soon-to-be, mail-order bride from the Old Country. Valentina is clearly a gold-digger of the worst sort, a wanton wench with a fantastic (but fake) bosum and an obsession for the good (that is, Western) life. All Nikolai wants is a trophy wife for his old age, and to finish his masterpiece, a treatise about tractors and their significance to civilization. Protecting their papa and vanquishing Valentina proves quite a challenge for the sisters. And quite entertaining for the reader lucky enough to find this gem of a novel! Apart from the humorous conflict, the author gives us an authentic and very affectionate glimpse into the lives of Ukrainian immigrants. And a compassionate account of the joys of caring for an aged parent. Don't miss "A Short History of the Tractor in Ukrainian."

This isn't a particularly long novel, yet Lewycka manages to accomplish so much! The story-line itself is simple: two estranged sisters in England try to stop their aged father's marriage to a gold-digging Ukrainian woman. But the book itself is complex. It's one of the funniest books I've read in a long time, and there is joy, and yet there is also plenty of tragedy and grief. All of the characters are wonderful; even some of the minor supporting characters are fully realized people. And none of the characters are fully good or bad. The author even had me sympathizing at times with the gold-digger and the men with whom she had affairs. I think the book's greatest asset, however, is that it shows genuine insight into real families, and the sorts of complicated stories that families make for themselves. How many books can make you laugh, make you cry, and teach you about the history of tractors and the Ukraine, all in less than 300 pages?

Marina Lewycka is a writer of rare wit and brilliance who may have single-handedly resurrected the novel as an artform in her first little fiction. Only a novel could incorporate a twentieth century history of the Ukraine under Stalin, an evocation of immigrant cultural archetypes, a documentary on aging in the industrial west and tell it in Jane Austen-like prose that resonates with the humor of a Woody Allen movie. Did I mention that in engaging slivers of commentary, you get an interesting history of tractors - in English! Avoid the reviewers who cannot help but tell you about the engaging story of this novel - you can read it for yourself in your spare time in just two days - be a "reader" and tell your friends about this extraordinary novel.