A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka

The first paragraph reads:
"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, churning up the murky water, bringing to the surface a sludge of sloughed-off memories, giving the family ghosts a kick up the backside."

And that pretty much describes the book. It is written from the point of view of Nadezhda, the younger daughter, who is a sociology instructor (but her family keeps calling her a social worker). Her father, Nikolai, and mother and older daughter, Vera, moved to England after the Second World War where Nadezhda was born. Her parents were married for sixty-five years before her mother died of cancer. After the mother's death the two daughters fought about their mother's will and haven't spoken since. However, the news about the impending nuptials with the Ukrainian divorcee (Valentina) necessitates desperate measures and Nadezhda calls Vera.

The title comes from a book Nikolai is writing and excerpts are scattered throughout the book. Nikolai was an engineer and worked in a tractor factory so he does know his stuff. He is not too smart in terms of money and scheming women though. His marriage to Valentina only ran smoothly as long as his money held out. 


I got a few funny looks at work when people saw the title. When I started telling them it was a really good book and I had trouble putting it down, they would sort of go....umm sure, and wander off. I think I've found the secret to uninterrupted reading at work, lol.

The story of the family sort of tied up with the history of tractors, and I was surprised how interesting I found the bits about tractor history.