Ollie Skyba's Blog
March 23, 2025
When Memory Speaks: Two Book Clubs, One Powerful Novel
I’m truly grateful for the opportunity to get to know Sasha Vasilyuk and to introduce her remarkable novel Your Presence Is Mandatory to different reading communities.
In February, I hosted a book club meeting with her in my BookieMovie Club — a warm and thoughtful group of Ukrainian and Russian-speaking readers of various nationalities.
And today, I had the pleasure of inviting Sasha to the San Carlos Moms Book Club — a vibrant American group — for another powerful conversation.
For me, it was especially meaningful to reflect on how different our conversations were in these two clubs. In February, we spoke more about memory, about secrecy, and about the impossibility of raising a new generation without passing on the trauma of bitter historical experience. We talked less about the historical events themselves — perhaps because for many of us, these events are deeply personal, painfully familiar, woven into our family stories. We didn’t need to explain — we simply knew.
But today, in an American book club, the conversation naturally turned toward those very historical layers: World War II, the deportation of entire peoples like the Crimean Tatars, the Holocaust, communism and fascism — all the way to the inhumane politics we’re witnessing in the U.S. today.
It’s striking how differently people discuss the same book depending on their backgrounds — with long family histories that reach into different wars, in different parts of the world. And yet, everyone understands the core: the pain that echoes through generations, the hope to protect our children from inherited suffering, and the chilling reality that history keeps repeating itself.
Books like this matter. And being among thoughtful, compassionate people — that’s what gets us through hard times. 💛📚
In February, I hosted a book club meeting with her in my BookieMovie Club — a warm and thoughtful group of Ukrainian and Russian-speaking readers of various nationalities.
And today, I had the pleasure of inviting Sasha to the San Carlos Moms Book Club — a vibrant American group — for another powerful conversation.
For me, it was especially meaningful to reflect on how different our conversations were in these two clubs. In February, we spoke more about memory, about secrecy, and about the impossibility of raising a new generation without passing on the trauma of bitter historical experience. We talked less about the historical events themselves — perhaps because for many of us, these events are deeply personal, painfully familiar, woven into our family stories. We didn’t need to explain — we simply knew.
But today, in an American book club, the conversation naturally turned toward those very historical layers: World War II, the deportation of entire peoples like the Crimean Tatars, the Holocaust, communism and fascism — all the way to the inhumane politics we’re witnessing in the U.S. today.
It’s striking how differently people discuss the same book depending on their backgrounds — with long family histories that reach into different wars, in different parts of the world. And yet, everyone understands the core: the pain that echoes through generations, the hope to protect our children from inherited suffering, and the chilling reality that history keeps repeating itself.
Books like this matter. And being among thoughtful, compassionate people — that’s what gets us through hard times. 💛📚
