Nadezhda is very concerned, and embarks on a series of efforts to protect her father’s pride and money, enlisting the help of her all but estranged sister to do so. However it quickly becomes apparent that he is head over heels for Valentina and is prepared to give her anything she wants, even if it means losing his life’s savings to do so. Nikolai, a Ukrainian immigrant himself who moved to the UK many decades ago, is all for this: He professes that this will be a marriage of convenience, and that he only wishes to support Valentina and give her a better life. This is Valentina, and Valentina is every Daily Mail reader’s worst nightmare of an Eastern European immigrant: She’s loud and vulgar, highly sexual and quite frankly only marrying Nikolai so that she can come and live in the UK. An autobiographical debut novel by Marina Lewycka, the main character Nadezhda is alarmed to hear that her 84-year-old widowed father Nikolai has decided to get married again – to a much younger woman, and a Ukrainian immigrant to boot. I really thought that everything about it was perfect, and I spent a lot of time bursting into uncontrollable laughter in public while reading it, which I think is always a sign of a good book.Ī Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian has, you’ll be pleased to know, almost nothing to do with tractors. I would just like to start by saying that I LOVED this book.
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