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  • A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian

  • By: Marina Lewycka
  • Narrated by: Siân Thomas
  • Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (432 ratings)

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A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian cover art

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian

By: Marina Lewycka
Narrated by: Siân Thomas
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Summary

Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a glamorous blonde Ukrainian divorcee. He was 84 and she was 36. She exploded into our lives like a fluffy pink grenade, churning up the murky water, bringing to the surface sludge of sloughed-off memories, giving the family ghosts a kick up the backside.

Sisters Vera and Nadezhda must put aside a lifetime of feuding to save their émigré engineer father from voluptuous gold-digger Valentina. With her proclivity for green satin underwear and boil-in-the-bag cuisine, she will stop at nothing in her pursuit of Western wealth. But the sisters' campaign to oust Valentina unearths family secrets, uncovers 50 years of Europe's darkest history and sends them back to roots they'd much rather forget....

©2005 Marina Lewycka (P)2014 Audible, Inc

Critic reviews

"A charming comedy of eros... A ride that, despite the bumps and curves in the road, never feels anything less than jaunty." (Los Angeles Times)
"Lewycka is a writer with a fundamentally optimistic vision of the future and a healthy curiosity about the past." (Chicago Tribune)
"Charming, poignantly funny." (The Washington Post Book World)

What listeners say about A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian

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Brilliant

These story made me laugh and sometimes angry. The Narrator was absolutely brilliant and uses different voices for each character.

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wonderful

couldn't Put it down. funny and thought provoking at the same time, and beautifully read.

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A extraordinary and lovely book

I have read and loved this book before in paper format and really hoped the reader would do it justice - which she absolutely did. The characters are utterly vibrant in all their wonderful and sometimes appalling eccentricity. The author's compassion and love shines through, and it manages to be both heart wrenching and extremely funny. I even enjoyed the asides about the history of tractors.... a lovely, lovely book well executed in audio format.

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The performance was delightful

Lots of fun, brought alive by performance. Not sure I would have enjoyed it as much just reading it. Story plodded on a bit in places but remained entertaining.

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Excellent

Cracking tale narrated very cleverly. Even more interesting due to the current situation in Ukraine.

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Wonderful

I read this book many years ago and enjoyed but have to say that it really came to life in the audio, Siân Thomas’ performance is great!

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Entertaining

Entertaining book, superbly narrated. Easy to listen to with some very funny bits. Will definitely download others by author and narrator.

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A Delight

I read the book several years ago and loved it. This Audible version is wonderful; apposite because of the terrible situation in Ukraine, and a delight because of the zany characters, and warmth of relationships portrayed. The narration is spot on. I will listen again in the future.

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Highly entertaining

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. An entertaining and amusing story, extremely well narrated.
it cleverly intwined a brief history lesson outlining the suffering and hardships of the Ukrainian people at the hands of communist Russian, without being heavy.
I highly recommend this Audible book

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Enchanting

12 out of 10 to Sian Thomas for fabulous narration.
The story has many interesting facts about tractors which surprise surprise are very interesting.
The humour being a combination of the story material as well as the skills of the narrator make this a very pleasant listen

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