Strong Roots: A Ukrainian Family Story, Interrupted

'An instant classic' NIGELLA LAWSON 'Sweeping, intimate, defiant and brimming with love' LOUISE KENNEDY 'It is the roots that keep the trees from falling during a storm. Olia Hercules tells us that the same is true for people and nations' SERHII PLOKHY I am writing this story without knowing its end: it begins long before I was born and will continue long after I die. I am writing this story to help myself heal and to make you understand. Strong Roots is the story of a century in Ukraine told through four generations of one extraordinary family. It takes us from years of Russification, to Olia’s grandmother’s deportation to snowy wastelands under Stalin, to her Aunt Zhenia's school protest, to her own parents’ flight from Ukraine when their town was occupied in 2022. This is an ode to the land, to ideas of home and belonging, and to family stories and recipes passed down the generations – the tang of sour cherries, the best way to make borsch. It is an account of resilience in the hardest of circumstances. Strong Roots brims with hope and grief. It lays bare the compromises and betrayals of generations struggling and surviving through war, peace, invasion and exile. It is an uplifting reminder of how much the human spirit can endure when born from a land rich with strong roots.

About the Author :
Olia Hercules was born in the South of Ukraine. She studied Italian language and International Relations at the University of Warwick. After spending a year in Italy, Olia settled in London, pursuing a career in journalism. She would later quit her job as a film business reporter to pursue her dream to cook for a living. Dedicated to researching food culture and culinary traditions of countries less explored, Hercules is the author of the award-winning cookbooks Mamushka, Kaukasis and Summer Kitchens. Twitter: @Olia_Hercules | Instagram: @oliahercules

Review :
I was completely pole-axed by this. It’s a breathtaking achievement to depict such pain so exquisitely. And it’s strikingly sui generis. Olia Hercules deftly fuses war reporting, food memoir, an investigation into identity and an act of resistance to create what I feel compelled to describe as a painting out of words. An instant classic It is the roots that keep the trees from falling during a storm. Olia Hercules tells us that the same is true for people and nations. It is the roots of culture and dignity that make them unbreakable at the time of war and peace, in Ukraine and beyond Olia Hercules is a beautiful writer. So attuned to the sensual details of the world. Very raw, very honest, in a way I appreciated a lot. And all the ingredients – personal stories, historical context, trauma and hope are so finely balanced. It deserves to be read and admired far and wide Only Olia Hercules could write such a cinematic and brave-hearted book examining what it is to live as a Ukrainian family at a time of unimaginable horrors and yet on every page the reader finds grace, strength, and occasionally the sting of dark Ukrainian humour. Strong Roots manages the near impossible: it is both a deeply personal book and a vital historical record Bittersweet, life-affirming and devastating all at the same time. I read the entire book with a lump in my throat. Olia has written an exquisite and unforgettable book Fiery, tender, deeply personal, how else to explain the importance of this unflinching account by an acclaimed food-writer - cook, mother, daughter, grandchild - of a people and place in a land under siege? Intimate, moving and brilliantly written, every page is a treasure-trove of memories - her own, her family's, and through listening to the experience of others. Here, in all its beauty and sorrow, is the story of Ukraine as it is, and was, and surely will be again. Unforgettable A searing, magnificent work. Poetic, personal, and raw. An exploration of what it means to be Ukrainian and to be defiant Sweeping, intimate, defiant and brimming with love. An exceptional work by a writer of enviable gifts Hercules is a remarkable writer and this is a stunningly beautiful book that moved me to the core Hercules's thought-provoking book is full of sparkling images and powerful insights into the relationship between food and society ... Both a history of Ukrainian gastronomic culture - drawing on the array of social and political phenomena that form culinary traditions - and a family saga played out against the background of Ukraine's Soviet and post-Soviet life An important book you can't put down, spanning several generations that brings to life what war and oppression does to proud people. But it is also a beautifully written and inspiring story about the enduring power of the human spirit ... I cannot recommend it enough There is great beauty, fierce joy and an indomitable appetite for life in her rendering of her family's story Part memoir and part cultural love letter ... A beautifully written and uplifting read about courage and resilience Written with a sizzling pen and a chef's sensitivity to smell and flavour [Strong Roots] looks back over four generations of family for whom war and displacement have been familiar experiences. From her researches into Ukrainian food, Hercules has hours of recorded interviews with relatives. From their voices a family saga emerges. The trauma she describes, both present and past, makes for moving, often painful reading. But the writing itself is a joy