Souvenirs from Kiev

“I am stunned by the sad beauty. I feel like I've gotten a present. That's how I feel after reading a really brilliant book or story.” – Marina Osipova, How Dare the Birds Sing

Kiev. 1942. Larissa is a renowned embroiderer, surviving in occupied Ukraine as a seamstress in her ruin of a workshop. When an SS officer arrives to order a traditionally embroidered Ukrainian shirt, Larissa uses the opportunity to create a piece of art from her handiwork. Threading together the history and the horrors between the two enemies, she finds a way to express her defiance toward the Nazis and the local collaborators. But at what price?

Prepare yourself for an unforgettable journey behind the Second World War’s eastern front. Six short stories, based on the author’s family's true accounts, will put you alongside painters and poets, partisans and dissidents, as they navigate through Ukraine’s war-torn landscape on a harrowing escape from tyranny.

Souvenirs from Kiev was awarded 2nd Place in the 2014 HNS International Short Story Award and the collection won the silver medal in the IPPY Book Awards 2020 for Military and Wartime fiction.