A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Softcover

Lewycka, Marina

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0241961823 ISBN 13: 9780241961827

Publisher: Penguin, 2012

Synopsis

The hilarious and award winning debut novel from bestselling author Marina Lewycka

'Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a glamorous blonde Ukrainian divorcée. He was eighty-four and she was thirty-six. She exploded into our lives like 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.'

Sisters Vera and Nadezhda must aside a lifetime of feuding to save their émigré engineer father from voluptuous gold-digger Valentina. With her proclivity for green satin underwear and boil-in-the-bag cuisine, she will stop at nothing in her pursuit of Western wealth.

But the sisters' campaign to oust Valentina unearths family secrets, uncovers fifty years of Europe's darkest history and sends them back to roots they'd much rather forget . . .

'It's rare to find a first novel that gets so much right . . . Lewycka is a seriously talented comic writer' Time Out

'Hugely enjoyable . . . yields a golden harvest of family truths' Daily Telegraph

'Delightful, funny, touching' Spectator

Bestselling author Marina Lewkyca has received great critical acclaim since the publication of her hilarious first novel A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian in 2005, which was the winner of the Bollinger Everyman Prize for Comic Fiction 2005, winner of the Saga Award for Wit 2005, shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2005 and longlisted for the Booker prize 2005. Her other humorous novels Two Caravans (published as Strawberry Fields in the USA and Canada), We Are All Made of Glue and Various Pets Alive and Dead are also available from Penguin.

About this title

Review:

It's rare to find a first novel that gets so much right . . . Lewycka is a seriously talented comic writer

(Time Out)

More than just a jolly romp with political undertones is the way it captures the peculiar flavour of Eastern European immigrant life . . . a very rich mixture indeed, as well as very enjoyable reading (Daily Express)

Funny, gritty, original ... one I adore (Independent)

Remarkable, a lovely novel (Sunday Telegraph)

An extraordinary read . . . nothing short of amazing. A rare treat, all too easy to gulp down in one greedy sitting (Spectator)

Outstanding (Literary Review)

Extremely funny (The Times)

Intelligent, lively, well written and compassionate (Financial Times)

Ploughs a rich comic furrow (Daily Telegraph)

A clever, touching story (Economist)

Book Description:

Winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize and shortlisted for The Orange Prize for Fiction 2005.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0241961823
• ISBN 13: 9780241961827
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336