The Silence of Trees

Just finished reading Valya Dudycz Lupescu's book, The Silence of the Trees. I enjoyed it - but thought the first half was a lot better than the last half. In fact, I wanted to just hurry up and finish it, although, I knew where it was going and there didn't seem to be a point to finishing it. (That sounds like a contradiction, doesn't it?) I hate saying negative things like that out loud. Forgive me. Overall I do recommend reading the book.

The writing was beautiful and the story - about the atrocities at the end of the war - tragic and important. The layers of Ukrainian myth and folklore gave the whole piece an other-worldly quality which was quite enchanting.

One of the pleasures of owning books is being able to mark favorite passages. Here's mine from page 90:

"What do you know of it? Nothing. You know nothing of what I lost. Nothing." I pounded my fist on the table. "For all your schooling, you have not learned about life. You can't learn history from just a few books. History lives in the people who were there, not in numbers. Not in names of battles ..."