The tie that binds
When middle-aged lecturer Nadia picks up the phone to speak to her 85-year-old widower father, Nikolai, in Peterborough, the last thing she expects to get is a new mother. One who is only 35 years old!
Two feuding sisters, Nadia and Vera, their almost senile father and a voluptuous Ukrainian tart, Valentina, are the central characters in Marina Lewycka’s touching debut novel.
Valentina, described by Nikolai as “Boticelli’s Venus rising from the waves”, waltzes into their lives, unearthing long forgotten secrets and creating chaos. After hurling abuses at her new husband, “You no good man. You plenty-money meanie. Promise money. Money sit in bank. Promise car. Crap car” she lashes out at Nadia and Vera too.
This simple, poignant story tells the tale of Ukrainian émigré Nikolai’s courtship and subsequent marriage to the “gold-digger” Valentina, whose only desire is to obtain a British passport.
Well-crafted flashbacks and sub-narratives give the reader insights into Communism in the countries of the former Soviet Bloc and convey the horrors of life in war camps.
The unusual title of this novel refers to the book that the technical genius Nikolai attempts to write–his life-work on the simple tractor, an invention that, according to him, changed the world. |
