Like A river from its course

An epic novel exposing the ugliness of war and the beauty of hopeThe city of Kiev was bombed in Hitler's blitzkrieg across the Soviet Union, but the constant siege was only the beginning for her citizens. In this sweeping historical saga, Kelli Stuart takes the reader on a captivating journey into the little--known history of Ukraine's tragedies through the eyes of four compelling characters who experience the same story from different perspectives.

Maria Ivanovna is only fourteen when the bombing begins and not much older when she is forced into work at a German labor camp. She must fight to survive and to make her way back to her beloved Ukraine.

Ivan Kyrilovich is falsely mistaken for a Jew and lined up with 34,000 other men, women, and children who are to be shot at the edge of Babi Yar, the "killing ditch." He survives, but not without devastating consequences.

Luda is sixteen when German soldiers rape her. Now pregnant with the child of the enemy, she is abandoned by her father, alone, and in pain. She must learn to trust family and friends again and find her own strength in order to discover the redemption that awaits.

Frederick Hermann is sure in his knowledge that the Fuhrer's plans for domination are right and just. He is driven to succeed by a desire to please a demanding father and by his own blind faith in the ideals of Nazism. Based on true stories gathered from fifteen years of research and interviews with Ukrainian World War II survivors, Like a River from Its Course is a story of love, war, heartache, forgiveness, and redemption.

My thoughts: What an incredible story! At times, it is tragic and hopeless, but I feel like it is a very realistic picture of what it must of been like to live in Ukraine during the early 1940's, with Germany invading and the war tearing the world apart. While this story shows the ugliness of war (I would not recommend it for younger readers, since it deals with some mature subjects that is part of war), it also shows how hope and goodness can grow out of the most barren ground.
I haven't read a lot about what happened in Ukraine during WWII, so this book was especially interesting for me to read. I thought that Kelli did a fabulous job of weaving the four stories together to show readers several different sides of the war. I only wish there had been a bit more in the epilogue!
I received this book from Litfuse in exchange for my honest review.