NEWS RELEASE
CREATIVE AGING BOOKS AND IDEAS
*************************
On Feb. 24, 2022, Putin attacked Ukraine, forever changing and disrupting the very face of a county whose dedication and love for their country, their homes and their way of life was shaken to the very core.
These brave and resilient people were filled with both fear and despair, yes, but also with the unequivocal determination to defend their country at all costs. “The fierce bravery of Ukrainian warriors withstanding the Russian Moloch has been proving that every day.”
One of the most important factors when analyzing war zones is to reflect on what has happened historically in those regions, a study in irony that author Marina Sonkina dissects with personal knowledge, empathy and keen observational skills in her book, Ukrainian Portraits: Diaries from the Border.
Russian-born, Marina grew up in Moscow, about two kilometres from the Kremlin. Fluent in several languages including Russian and Ukrainian, in addition to several others, she left her British Columbia home in March of 2022, and travelled to the Ukrainian-Polish border to volunteer at a refugee evacuation centre.
As someone who had been a refugee herself, Marina was inspired to write Diaries from the Border because she “realized that what the Ukrainian refugees needed most (apart from practical advice) was to talk about their experiences.”
It was this need that defines Marina’s stories from the borders, ones that draw readers in with their descriptive details and their emotion-filled experiences.
Marina’s descriptive imagery of some of the hardest-hit areas of Ukraine allows us, the readers, to envision the homes that Ukrainian citizens have had to flee in the wake of the Russian invasion. She captures the aftermath of those initial days in a way that feels like a punch to the gut with the knowing that the peaceful lives of so many were wrenched away in such a horrific, unsparing manner.
Marina will be joining Creative Aging Books and Ideas (a subsidiary of Art Your Service) on April 25 at 2 p.m.
Read Cece Scott’s (cecescott.com) full review and register for the free Zoom link here.
*************************
