The Farm at Novestroka

About the Book

THE FARM AT NOVESTROKA is a story of two Ukrainian women and their struggle to survive during war and its aftermath.

Irena Martsenyuk is a collective-farm woman whose peaceful life is shattered when German invaders sweep through the Ukraine. Her son is killed in battle, and her husband is ordered to serve with the partisans. Demands for food to feed the partisans drive her to the edge of starvation.

Anya Trofimenko is a member of the village government. She evades the German occupation forces and acts as a spy for the partisans. As the battle for liberation heats up, she and Irena Martsenyuk hide away in a pig hut under the snow while the Red army is driving out the enemy. After the enemy is gone, she finds herself the only government official at hand to run the village and the adjacent collective farm.

About the Author

John Kershaw was borne and raised in Philadelphia. He was a seaman during one war and a soldier during another, is married with five children and three grandchildren, graduated from Rutgers University, has been a subsistence farmer and bee keeper, a ships’ radio officer, an engineer, teacher and writer.