In Under This Unbroken Sky by Shandi Mitchell, the reader is treated to a beautifully written debut novel which describes a slice of life of the Ukrainian immigrants in the northern plains of Canada. It is the spring of 1937, and Theo Mykolayenko returns to his wife and children after serving two years in jail for stealing his own grain. Theo stoically survived jail time by keeping his eyes on the prize of being free and owning his land. After all, wasn’t Canada the land of the free? Maria, his wife, and children survived the years by living in Theo sister’s shed and by pooling together their resources. Theo’s sister, Anna, has secured an adjacent homestead for Theo, unbeknown to her abusive husband. Will Theo be able to forget the past injustices and keep his eye on the future? Why does Anna cohort with the coyotes and will she learn from their strength to resist letting her husband back into her life? Will Maria, with her soothing spirit, be able to mend her husband and her sister-in-law? Will the children of Theo and Anna be able to straddle both their Ukrainian past and Canadian future?

This was an impressive novel that succeeded on many levels. The characters just came alive and will have the reader vested in their lives and feel their pain and joy of the vicissitudes of life. The description of the land and how unrelenting the elements were made Mother Nature a character in the book and you were rooting for this villainous character not to succeed in her attempt to break the spirit and resilience of the other characters. Tragedy was always looming, but to the credit of Shandi Mitchell’s skill as a writer, I was not quite sure when it would happen or to whom. This was an excellent immigrant story which showed that the success of the immigrant was less about the immigrants will to succeed but more on how much the new country was willing to allow the immigrant to succeed, and how those in power would always make and change the rules to make sure that they stayed in power.

I recommend this book to all fans of historical fiction.

Reviewed by Beverly
APOOO BookClub

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