Valya Dudycz Lupescu’s haunting, lyrical novel The Silence of Trees is well worth the usual purchase price of $4.99, but from now through May 3rd the author is offering it for free download. From Amazon:
In Chicago’s Ukrainian Village, Nadya Lysenko has built her life on a foundation of secrets. When she was sixteen, Nadya snuck out of her house in Western Ukraine to meet a fortuneteller in the woods. She never expected it to be the last time she would see her family. Decades later, Nadya continues to be haunted by the death of her parents and sisters. The myths and magic of her childhood are still a part of her reality: dreams unite friends across time and space, house spirits misplace keys and glasses, and a fortuneteller’s cards predict the future. Nadya’s beloved dead insist on being heard through dreams and whispers in the night. They want the truth to come out. Nadya needs to face her past and confront the secrets she buried–in The Silence of Trees.
Readers love this book, and have given it an average review rating of 4.7/5 stars across 143 reviews. Top 500 Reviewer and Vine Voice R. Kyle says:
Nearly three years ago, I read the first 5000 words of this story for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards. Ms. Lupescu left me in a Ukranian forest full of German soldiers bent on rape with sixteen year old Nadya seeking her fortune from a clan of gypsies.
I’ve wondered what happened ever since. I bought “The Silence of Trees” as soon as the book was available via Amazon and even paid extra for second day delivery. I sat down with the book and a cup of tea expecting to finish in one sitting.
Normally, I’m a serial devourer of books, but “The Silence of Trees” was entirely too rich for that. I paused at 75 pages and dreamed that night of the gypsy camp. Music, counterpointed by the jangle of tambourines rang in my ears. I even saw the raven-haired dancer clad in red and gold.
I followed Nadya through fifty years of her life, learning what it was like to lose family during World War II, to live in a German work camp, and to finally immigrate to a new land where you do not speak the language and begin anew. Each step is full of the same vivid detail as the initial scenes. Nadya and her family grow and become as real as next-door neighbors.
Ms. Lupescu’s prose truly is the stuff that dreams are made of. The narrative voice of her protagonist Nadya remains strong throughout nearly fifty years of her life. You can almost taste the kolachi and feel the willow switches on your backside on Palm Sunday. The best of literature transports you to places you have never been. While some of the locales of “Silence” are places you may not have wished to be, there’s heart and hope in every page.
Don’t miss this wonderful book—especially while you can get it for free!
I saw this book on a friend’s Kindle lend me and at the time was reading another book, BrainRush II, and intended to borrow it from her and read it when I finished what I was reading. Then when I tried to find it I could not find it or her site so was so excited when I saw this. I read from my laptop as I don’t have a Kindle fire “YET”.. I enter every week and anywhere I see a link to win a Kindle Fire and just know that eventually I will get lucky and win one. I would give anything if I had a job and the money to go and buy one but winning will be a wonderful thing. I figure odds are that sooner or later someone from Huntsville, AL has to win and it has to be me. I pray every week for it and am always happy when someone does win. I never feel like I am unlucky as I figure you have to think positive and one day it will be my turn. 🙂 So congrats to all the past winners and future winners and when my turn comes around, hopefully soon, I will be the happiest person ever.. Thank you so much for this free copy of this book. I can’t wait to get started.. 🙂
Thank you for the free read! It looks like a great read! @:)