HEART STONES

A historically rich debut novel about early-20th-century Ukrainian immigration to Canada, inspired by the ordeals endured by Nykoluk’s grandparents.

In 1914, the area that would later be known as Ukraine is controlled by Russia in the East and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the West. Myk and Lilia Jankiv, the parents of a 3-year-old son and a newborn daughter, live in Melnytsya Podilska, Galicia, close to the Russian border. Myk wants to immigrate to Canada, as a railroad company there has been recruiting men with promises of jobs and cheap land. With the help of a small bribe, Myk is able to acquire a seat on a train to Lviv, beginning his long journey through Europe before boarding a steamship to Canada. His expectation is that as soon as he earns enough money, he’ll have Lilia and their children join him. Back home, Lilia struggles to manage their small farm and care for the kids. After World War I breaks out, the Russians invade the western sector, pillaging, raping, and murdering. The Austrian army evacuates the village residents to a refugee camp in Austria, where Lilia and the children will remain until 1920. Nykoluk has Lilia and Myk alternatingly narrate their own stories, which has the effect of bringing readers up close to their day-to-day struggles to survive, both during and after the war. The number of minor vignettes becomes overwhelming at times. However, Nykoluk writes in graphic detail of the harshness and danger of Myk’s work for the railroad, as when a minor character is seriously injured on the job (“He was screaming, his trousers barely hiding the odd shape of his lower right leg”), and shows how difficulties were compounded by Canadian suspicion of the immigrant population. The novel also details the poverty and hunger in the refugee camps and the ever present loneliness of two fully drawn main characters. Along the way, the author skillfully weaves in vivid elements of Ukrainian customs and history.

A poignant work with disturbing relevance to today’s battle for Ukrainian democracy.