Under This Unbroken SkyUnder This Unbroken Sky

AN EPIC TALE OF A UKRAINIAN FAMILY’S STRUGGLE TO SURVIVE
“Remarkable. . . . Mitchell’s harrowing story delivers an unforgettable literary tribute to an immigrant people and their struggle. The lyrical style, the riveting historical material, and the treatment of prejudice make the novel a great book-club choice.”
—Booklist (starred review)
“Utterly gripping. Epic in scope, this tale of family feuds, violence and hardship follows the fortunes of Theo Mykolayenko, a Ukrainian survivor of Stalin’s labour camps who starts a new life in the harsh Canadian Prairies. His mettle is tested to the limit by the land and his neighbours’ hostilities, but eventually his fields are golden with corn and his family start to thrive. That is, until the return of his sister’s malevolent, drunken husband, whose merciless greed threatens to undermine everything Theo has so resolutely worked for. Beautifully pitched and unsentimental in execution. Brilliant.”
—Marie Claire
In the spring of 1938, Teodor Mykolayenko returns to his family after a year spent in prison for the crime of trying to feed them. His wife and children have been living under the care of his sister Anna on the harsh and unforgiving prairie landscape. Channelling the great inner power that enabled him to survive drought, starvation, warfare, and Stalin’s crimes in Ukraine, he takes to the land with unbending resolve, and as the crops grow, his family heals and strengthens. But the family’s hopes and newfound happiness are short-lived when Anna’s rogue husband returns with an unforgiveable plan that threatens to take away everything they have built. A novel about family, pride, the resiliency and fragility of the human spirit and the fine line between those who break and those who don’t, Under This Unbroken Sky is a magnificent piece of storytelling from a remarkable new voice in contemporary literature.