Ebook Details
Olga's Story: Three Continents, Two World Wars and Revolution--One Woman's Epic Journey Throug h the Twentieth Century
Williams remembers her grandmother Olga as a warm woman with a sense of humor, but also as a "formidable presence," with "an air of authority, a confidence in her own judgment." In this event-filled biography, Williams, who has been a journalist with the Sunday Times of London, tells of the turbulent life behind that imperious facade. Olga Yunter (1900–1974) had a childhood of relative comfort in her native Siberia, thanks to her father, an enterprising merchant who traded with China. But two of her brothers were killed for opposing the Bolsheviks, and for her own anti-Bolshevik activities she had to flee across the border to China, at the age of 20. There, to achieve some sense of security, she married a man she didn't love, but in 1938 had to flee again with her daughter, this time to Canada, to escape the brutal Japanese occupation. (Her husband, Fred, who was British, spent the war in Japanese prison camps.) Drawing on printed records, letters, memoirs and conversations with Olga and other family members, Williams succeeds in evoking pre–WWI Siberia and Tientsin, China. But despite her careful attention to the details of her grandmother's dramatic life, Williams doesn't dig down to Olga's personality or feelings, thus failing to bring Olga herself to life. Illus. Maps not seen by PW. Agent, Carlisle & Co. (June) Williams grew up listening to vague stories her grandmother told of her family being caught in the Russian civil war, escaping to China, and eventually settling in England, where they continued to guard secrets of the past for fear of political retribution and painful memories. Three times her grandmother, Olga Yunter, lost everything as she fled from Russia to China to England. Drawing on old letters, government documents, and interviews, Williams relates her grandmother's extraordinary journey. Olga was born in 1900 in remote Siberia. When her family joined in resisting the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution, her brothers were killed and Olga was forced to flee, journeying alone to northern China with rubies sewn into her petticoats. She joined a group of Russian exiles and eventually met her husband, a British businessman. When the Japanese attacked China, Olga fled again, forced to leave her husband behind in an internment camp. With all the drama of a novel, Olga's journey chronicles the personal trauma of world events of the past century. Vanessa Bush Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
(from Amazon.com)
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