A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka Reviews

I really expected to enjoy this book. Everything about it seemed pleasingly quirky, and all the reviews I'd seen promised it to be some kind of hilarious adventure with outrageous gold-digging and other hi-jinks. The story is simple - a Ukranian economic migrant tries to muscle her way into marrying a frail old man, and his daughters ...  Read the complete review

A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian by Marina Lewycka is a touching novel that delves into the world of second generation immigrants and their elders who are still struggling to integrate into British society. I won't give away the whole plot, but the book centres around an old Ukranian man who is struggling to justify his existence ...  Read the complete review

I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to read "A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian" by Marina Lewycka, I had read her second book "Two Caravans" and found her style of writing a little strange. However a friend at work recommended it and lent me her book so I thought I would give it a try. Firstly the title of the ...  Read the complete review

An elderly gentleman gets tangled up with a well endowed Ukranian asylum seeker who is only out for his money. At least this is what he is daughters think. They don't get along very well butt hey get together to stop There are a lot of characters in this book including the pub landlord and the buxom ladies' son, not to ...  Read the complete review

PLOT Warring sisters Vera and Nadia unite when their elderly widower father (Nikolai) announces he is to marry a young, blonde, well endowed Ukrainian woman who is seeking asylum. Despite their best efforts, their father marries the dreaded Valentina and the plot follows the chaos that ensues. There are also chapters that detail the history ...  Read the complete review

I don't necessarily have a favourite type of book. I'm more likely to go into Borders see what is by the door in the 3 for 2 section & then will check out the reviews on the covers. If they are appealing then the book is bought. So far this way of buying & enjoying books has worked for me; that is until now. The reviews on the ...  Read the complete review

This is a humerous read. The main character is Nadezhda who is almost fifty and an University Lecturer. Centres on the family disasters that invove around her father. He finds himself another patner even though he is twentyfive years younger than him after their mother had died. She came from the Ukrain and was an divorcee and this brought ...  Read the complete review

Sisters Vera and Nadia start to worry when their elderly father marries a well-endowed Ukranian asylum seeker who seems to be after his money. Although not on the best of terms themselves, they join forces to try and help him. Tractors is one of those strange little books which crops up every so often, captures the imagination and ...  Read the complete review

‘A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian’ is a cracking read: funny, touching and very realistic. It tells the story of Nadia’s, father, an 84 year old Ukranian immigrant who is getting married to a 36 year old busty blonde diva so that she can stay in the UK, and live ‘the good western life’. You can imagine the comedic episodes that transpire ...  Read the complete review

On first glance, this seems like an obscure, dry book. Nothing could be futher from the truth! It's the story of an elderly Ukranian widower from Peterborough, who marries a 'gold digging tart' aged 34 as a charitable deed, to giver her a better life than the one she has in the Ukraine. His daughters aim to save him from the terrible ...  Read the complete review

Nicolai is an 86 year old immigrant from the Ukraine, living in Peterborough, England, who has been a widower for about two years. The loss of his wife was a blow to him, but he has begun coping. One way is by writing his book - A Short History of Tractors. He's writing it in Ukrainian, of course, but he's also translating it into English. In ...  Read the complete review

Has the world gone mad? People are actually reading a book entitled “A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian”. A book about farming machinery in a little known Slavonic language does not sound like a best seller to me. In fact it sounds like something that should be in a specialist university collection. In fact the title is somewhat misleading. ...  Read the complete review

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian doesn’t sound like a book that’s worth reading, does it? But it’s deceptive. It’s not written in Ukrainian, it’s not a translation from a book written in Ukrainian and it’s not really about tractors. The title actually comes from the title of the book one of the characters is writing. Confusing, ...  Read the complete review

I bet not many of you know Ukrainians living in GB, I do, though, I’ve even been to a Ukrainian-Orthodox wedding in the chapel of a college in Oxford; a friend of ours whose father is Ukrainian got married according to that rite. Among the guests were many elderly people, I remember them singing wonderfully. This memory has lingered in my mind for ...  Read the complete review

Nadia and Vera are middle-aged Ukrainian sisters living in Britain and everything - form personality to politics - seems to divide them. But now they have to join ranks as their elderly widowed father Nikolay falls prey to Valentine, a silicone-breasted, bottle-blonded gold digger back from the home country who arrives in the UK with her teenage ...  Read the complete review

"Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a glamorous blond Ukrainian divorcee. He was eighty-four and she was thirty-six. 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 ...  Read the complete review