My Reiview
This is a book that is rich in history, facts, texture, cold, isolation, hope, and rescue. I enjoyed this book for the intellectual stimuli and the hope inspired despite the brutality of the land and the people. The heart of the Volga Germans was still strong in this final installment in The Volga Flows Forever. No matter what the new government put in their way, from little-minded teachers to outright slavery and brutality, they worked to stay together and survive.
The stories of Ms. Weidenweber are well written with lots of research put in to know the area, peoples, and times she writes about. She weaves a tale that is as engaging as it is informative. I learned much about the USSR, the Volga settlers, and the efforts to save those who were persecuted in that area of the world. The parts played by the Allied Forces during World War II were important for the survival of Katya. She was a strong female role model and couldn’t find it in herself to give up and die, even when that was what she seemed to want the most. I cheered for her when she stood up for herself and others for better treatment for them and punishment for those who had so deeply wronged them.
This is definitely worth the time to read. I enjoyed the book and I think you will, too.
About the Book
In my darkest hours, when worry and despair about the future of my family blankets my soul, I hear my father’s voice, giving me hope. On the day they dragged him to the gulag, he had looked at my mother with courage in his eyes, and said, “We are eternal; our faith, like the Volga, flows forever.”
The heroine of this powerful work, Katya, is a bright, energetic and resourceful Volga German girl, a worthy descendant of those first pioneers of the steppe we learned to know in the second volume. Katya is free to reveal, through her feminine creator, thoughts and circumstances often hidden to men. Sigrid artfully illuminates dress, colors, textures, foods and challenges as Katya embarks upon an adventurous escape from a gulag on the arctic tundra.
About the Author
Born in Germany in 1941, Sigrid Weidenwber remembers the horrific aftermath of fascism. At the end of the war, she found herself living under communism. After the Berlin Wall was built, she managed to escape the repressive environment with the help of friends and a French passport. To this day she does not speak French.
She holds degrees in medical technology, psychology and an Honorary Doctor of Letters from Concordia University of Portland, Oregon for her trilogy “The Volga Flows Forever.” In her trilogy she brings to life Catherine the Great in her multiple roles as monarch, woman, lover, mother, grandmother and head of the general staff of the army, in Volume one. The following two historical volumes deal with the Volga Germans brought to Russia by Catherine’s edict.
Three years ago she moved to Santa Rosa Valley, California from Portland Oregon. She has passionately embraced California together with her family that also resides here.
Visit the Author’s Website
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