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Away from the Dead
Longlisted, Scotiabank Giller Prize Violence is the domain of both the rich and poor. Or so it seems in early 20th-century Ukraine during the tumult of the Russian Revolution. As anarchists, Bolsheviks, and the White Army all come and go, each claiming freedom and justice, David Bergen embeds his readers into the lives of characters connected through love, family, and loyalty. Lehn, a bookseller south of Kiev, deserts the army and writes poetry to his love back home; Sablin, an adopted Mennonite-Ukrainian stableboy, runs with the anarchists only to discover that love and the planting of crops is preferable to killing; Inna, a beautiful young peasant, tries to stop a Mennonite landowner from stealing her child. In a world of violence, Sablin, Lehn, and Inna learn to love and hate and love again, hoping, against all odds, that one can turn away from the dead. In this beautifully crafted novel, David Bergen takes us to a place where chaos reigns, where answers come from everywhere and nowhere, and where both the beauty and horror of humanity are on full display.
226 pages, Paperback
Published September 5, 2023
14 people are currently reading
401 people want to read
About the author
David Bergen
28 books104 followersBorn in Port Edward, British Columbia, author David Bergen worked as a writer and high school English teacher in Winnipeg, Manitoba, before gaining a great deal of recognition in Canada when his novel The Time In Between won the 2005 Scotiabank Giller Prize, one of Canada's most prestigious literary awards. The novel also received a starred review in Kirkus Reviews and was longlisted for the 2007 IMPAC Award.
Bergen's debut novel, A Year of Lesser, was a New York Times Notable Book, and a winner of the McNally Robinson Book of the Year award in 1997. His 2002 novel The Case of Lena S. was a finalist for the Governor General's Award for English language fiction, and won the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award. It was also a finalist for the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award and the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction.
Additionally, Bergen has received the 1993 John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer, and the 2000 Canadian Literary Award for Short Story.
In 2008, he published his fifth novel, The Retreat, which was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and which won the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award and the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction.
Bergen currently resides in Winnipeg, Manitoba with his family.
Bergen's debut novel, A Year of Lesser, was a New York Times Notable Book, and a winner of the McNally Robinson Book of the Year award in 1997. His 2002 novel The Case of Lena S. was a finalist for the Governor General's Award for English language fiction, and won the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award. It was also a finalist for the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award and the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction.
Additionally, Bergen has received the 1993 John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer, and the 2000 Canadian Literary Award for Short Story.
In 2008, he published his fifth novel, The Retreat, which was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and which won the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award and the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction.
Bergen currently resides in Winnipeg, Manitoba with his family.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
October 1, 2023
Reading David Bergen’s Away from the Dead almost immediately brought me back to my 20s—to a time when I read nothing but novels by the Russian masters. This novel had a very similar feel—people living in desperate times, bartering and trading favours just to stay alive.
The difference, though, is Bergen’s focus is Ukraine during the Russian Revolution. Here we meet several key characters, both wealthy landowners and the peasants who work their land. The synopsis, in part, describes it well. The novel “takes us to a place where chaos reigns, where answers come from everywhere and nowhere, and where both the beauty and horror of humanity are on full display.”
Readers cannot help but become fully invested in Bergen’s carefully-developed characters. They have our hearts as they’re made to suffer through severe food shortages, to scrounge for every meal. Thankfully, they have potatoes but often only potatoes. He keeps us right on the very edge as most evenings our heroes fear soldiers will barge in, demanding food, their belongings, even their wives and daughters for a night of drunken debauchery. Often they will steal, or even kill, the stable animals. In the end, they’ll be left with nothing as, to these soldiers of war, nothing is sacred. It’s simply kill or be killed.
And yet, somehow, Bergen is able to show us with just a few words, a gentle touch, or a loving glance, that humanity still lives within these stalwart men and women who’ve witnessed the very worst of humankind. As I came to the end of the story, I was left with a feeling of melancholy, until Bergen surprised me with a very tiny glimpse of a hopeful future. Such an incredible book!! Bravo Mr. Bergen!
Therefore, I give it 5 “Melancholy-but-hopeful” stars.⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The difference, though, is Bergen’s focus is Ukraine during the Russian Revolution. Here we meet several key characters, both wealthy landowners and the peasants who work their land. The synopsis, in part, describes it well. The novel “takes us to a place where chaos reigns, where answers come from everywhere and nowhere, and where both the beauty and horror of humanity are on full display.”
Readers cannot help but become fully invested in Bergen’s carefully-developed characters. They have our hearts as they’re made to suffer through severe food shortages, to scrounge for every meal. Thankfully, they have potatoes but often only potatoes. He keeps us right on the very edge as most evenings our heroes fear soldiers will barge in, demanding food, their belongings, even their wives and daughters for a night of drunken debauchery. Often they will steal, or even kill, the stable animals. In the end, they’ll be left with nothing as, to these soldiers of war, nothing is sacred. It’s simply kill or be killed.
And yet, somehow, Bergen is able to show us with just a few words, a gentle touch, or a loving glance, that humanity still lives within these stalwart men and women who’ve witnessed the very worst of humankind. As I came to the end of the story, I was left with a feeling of melancholy, until Bergen surprised me with a very tiny glimpse of a hopeful future. Such an incredible book!! Bravo Mr. Bergen!
Therefore, I give it 5 “Melancholy-but-hopeful” stars.⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
October 14, 2023
Surviving the Ukrainian War of Independence 1917-1921
Review of the Goose Lane Editions paperback edition (September 5, 2023)
Away from the Dead is set in a war-torn Ukraine, but not during the current Russia-Ukraine War (2022-) but instead almost a century earlier, during the chaos of the aftermath of the Russian Revolution of 1917 when various former provinces of the former Tsarist Russian Empire fought for their independence against what became the ruling Russian Bolshevik Communist government.
This was not a clearcut conflict between Ukrainian nationalists versus outsider colonialists. Instead there were several opposing forces of foreign powers, tsarists, anarchists*, communists marauding the land and terrorizing the local populace. Bergen sets his story in the midst of this conflict with several main characters including a bookseller, landowners and farm workers.
The Canadian tie-in is that many of the Ukrainian Mennonites became emigrants to Canada in their journey "Away from the Dead." This novel was in the classic style of epic historical fiction focusing on the lives of regular people who are caught up in a terror-filled time of conflict which not all of them will survive. I found this book to be completely engrossing and a compelling read which, although often depressing and traumatic, provides a light of hope at its end.
I read Away from the Dead through its being Longlisted for the 2023 Scotiabank Giller Prize. It did not make the shortlist which was announced on Wednesday October 11, 2023. The winner will be announced on Monday November 13, 2023.
Footnote
* The Makhnovshchina [romanized from the Ukrainian Махновщина i.e. "Makhno Movement"] was a mass movement to establish anarchist communism in southern and eastern Ukraine during the Ukrainian War of Independence of 1917–1921. Named after Nestor Makhno, the commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine, its aim was to create a system of free soviets that would manage the transition towards a stateless and classless society.
Other Reviews
A Novel set in War-Torn Ukraine, CBC Books, August 23, 2023.
Book Review: Away from the Dead, I've Read This, September 28, 2023 [also links to a BookTube review].
Trivia and Links
There was a September 21, 2023 book launch event for Away from the Dead at the Winnipeg International Writers Festival which you can watch on YouTube here.
Author David Bergen discusses the novel at the "Russlaender Mennonites: War, Dislocation, and New Beginnings" Conference at the University of Winnipeg in Winnipeg, Canada on July 15, 2023 which you can watch on YouTube here.
In his Author's Note for the novel, David Bergen acknowledges two books, Victor Shklovsky's A Sentimental Journey: Memoirs, 1917-1922 (1923) and John P. Dyck's Troubles and Triumphs 1914-1924 Excerpts From the Diary of Peter J. Dyck (1981), as being his primary sources for some of the historical background material.
Review of the Goose Lane Editions paperback edition (September 5, 2023)
This woman has no overt politics, though it might aid her if she did, and if her husband is a landowner, if he has earth that he calls his own, he might be shot, or he might live, but he will probably be killed, because he is a kulak who took what was not rightfully his, or he will be killed because he is in the wrong place.
Away from the Dead is set in a war-torn Ukraine, but not during the current Russia-Ukraine War (2022-) but instead almost a century earlier, during the chaos of the aftermath of the Russian Revolution of 1917 when various former provinces of the former Tsarist Russian Empire fought for their independence against what became the ruling Russian Bolshevik Communist government.
This was not a clearcut conflict between Ukrainian nationalists versus outsider colonialists. Instead there were several opposing forces of foreign powers, tsarists, anarchists*, communists marauding the land and terrorizing the local populace. Bergen sets his story in the midst of this conflict with several main characters including a bookseller, landowners and farm workers.
The Canadian tie-in is that many of the Ukrainian Mennonites became emigrants to Canada in their journey "Away from the Dead." This novel was in the classic style of epic historical fiction focusing on the lives of regular people who are caught up in a terror-filled time of conflict which not all of them will survive. I found this book to be completely engrossing and a compelling read which, although often depressing and traumatic, provides a light of hope at its end.
I read Away from the Dead through its being Longlisted for the 2023 Scotiabank Giller Prize. It did not make the shortlist which was announced on Wednesday October 11, 2023. The winner will be announced on Monday November 13, 2023.
Footnote
* The Makhnovshchina [romanized from the Ukrainian Махновщина i.e. "Makhno Movement"] was a mass movement to establish anarchist communism in southern and eastern Ukraine during the Ukrainian War of Independence of 1917–1921. Named after Nestor Makhno, the commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine, its aim was to create a system of free soviets that would manage the transition towards a stateless and classless society.
Other Reviews
A Novel set in War-Torn Ukraine, CBC Books, August 23, 2023.
Book Review: Away from the Dead, I've Read This, September 28, 2023 [also links to a BookTube review].
Trivia and Links
There was a September 21, 2023 book launch event for Away from the Dead at the Winnipeg International Writers Festival which you can watch on YouTube here.
Author David Bergen discusses the novel at the "Russlaender Mennonites: War, Dislocation, and New Beginnings" Conference at the University of Winnipeg in Winnipeg, Canada on July 15, 2023 which you can watch on YouTube here.
In his Author's Note for the novel, David Bergen acknowledges two books, Victor Shklovsky's A Sentimental Journey: Memoirs, 1917-1922 (1923) and John P. Dyck's Troubles and Triumphs 1914-1924 Excerpts From the Diary of Peter J. Dyck (1981), as being his primary sources for some of the historical background material.
May 6, 2025
It’s funny, I kept saying historical fiction isn’t really my thing, but every one I try has been amazing or really good. So maybe it is my thing? I like when books prove you wrong.
This follows main characters, Lehn Sablin, andInna as they navigate war, love, death and books in early 20th century Ukraine.
I like how Bergen’s style of writing is quick and to the point. It’s almost jarring at times. I also found it lacking emotion by being so abrupt. It was a quick read, though.
Overall, great historical details that made me feel like I was in war torn times. 4⭐️
This follows main characters, Lehn Sablin, andInna as they navigate war, love, death and books in early 20th century Ukraine.
I like how Bergen’s style of writing is quick and to the point. It’s almost jarring at times. I also found it lacking emotion by being so abrupt. It was a quick read, though.
Overall, great historical details that made me feel like I was in war torn times. 4⭐️
August 29, 2023
"I just don't trust stories. That is why we call them stories. They are made up for a greater purpose, not because they are true."
David Bergen explores the universality of violence and longing with early 20th-century Ukraine as the backdrop in his newest novel, Away from the Dead. At a time when Russia was living through it's many stages of revolution with all sorts of anarchists, Bolsheviks and other groups claiming power in the vacuum left by the overthrow of the Russian Emperor in the late 1910s. Through a main cast of characters inlcuding a bookseller sent to the front lines, an adopted stable-boy, and his sister as they face upheaval, through connection to landowners, family and loyalty.
"Violence has never cured the world. Look around you. Man is evil. Greedy. Full of lust and vengeance. I cannot stand with vengeance. Even if it costs me my life."
Along with the great revolution of their country, the characters themselves resort to the primal whims of their nature when faced with life or death. Where there was once love in their hearts is now a newfound hate, for lack of choice in the matter. Whether acts of violence are in the name of love, honour or protection, they remain sadist and brutal in nature. Bergen writes characters that are sympathetic and humane and sensually walks the line between their dualities. Through it all, Lehn, Sablin and Inna, find a truth amongst the madness and sickness of their world.
"Just because you don't believe in sin doesn't mean it isn't out there digging around in people's hearts and minds."
Inspired by his own family's heritage, Away from the Dead is another example of Bergen's sensual language examining longing in all of its forms in any context. Whether Lehn is longing for knowledge or understanding, and Sablin and Inna for acceptance, safety and love, Bergen is a writer that I take my time reading and makes me slow down to enjoy every last little word and phrase and reading his works brings me to the present. This new novel is an ambitious and thematically dense piece of literature for under 230 pages. I definitely would have liked to read and learn more about these characters, after Bergen imprinted their ethos onto me with his always beautiful writing. I will always read what David Bergen writes because he is that good, yet again.
"She rolled her eyes and said that faith was more difficult than disbelief."
"To speak of what is in my head is to condemn myself."
"Prayer is not a selfish request. It is being humble. Admitting your helplessness."
"You buy it and you read it. I will charge you what it is worth and usually will charge you less than it's worth. For a book can be priceless. The peasants had no idea what they were turning against. The goal was to destroy the kulak, the landowner, the bookshop owner. Heads would roll, and anything that those heads had produced, including books, would go as well. Lehn was appalled. He saw danger. He smelled fear. He had believed that selling books was an innocuous trade. The first question he should have asked himself was what class he belonged to, his origin, education, profession. Hence, his fate. He was doomed."
"He developed the photograph and had it delivered to the Martens family in Kiev. He had been prac- tising at the estate with the camera, taking photographs of the horses, and the land around, but this was the first time he had photographed people, and though at first his hands were shak- ing, and he believed someone might stop him, he discovered that the camera was respected, and it was like a shield, and he was not seen as a poor peasant boy, but as a young man who wielded a certain power. People liked the idea of being seen, of being held in one place in a certain space. It was to his benefit that people were generally self-centred."
"He said that of course he was older and she was younger and in general she could have the pick of the various ripening on the vine, and perhaps she already had her eye on a young tomato, and if that was the case, he would be very happy for her, though he would be sad for himself, but should that not be the case, and if he was the preferred tomato, then they should get married sooner rather than later, because it was essential that she have another child, and that that child be theirs, not someone else's. He said that she was sad, and he didn't like it when she was sad, and perhaps she didn't even know that she was sad. Did she? "
David Bergen explores the universality of violence and longing with early 20th-century Ukraine as the backdrop in his newest novel, Away from the Dead. At a time when Russia was living through it's many stages of revolution with all sorts of anarchists, Bolsheviks and other groups claiming power in the vacuum left by the overthrow of the Russian Emperor in the late 1910s. Through a main cast of characters inlcuding a bookseller sent to the front lines, an adopted stable-boy, and his sister as they face upheaval, through connection to landowners, family and loyalty.
"Violence has never cured the world. Look around you. Man is evil. Greedy. Full of lust and vengeance. I cannot stand with vengeance. Even if it costs me my life."
Along with the great revolution of their country, the characters themselves resort to the primal whims of their nature when faced with life or death. Where there was once love in their hearts is now a newfound hate, for lack of choice in the matter. Whether acts of violence are in the name of love, honour or protection, they remain sadist and brutal in nature. Bergen writes characters that are sympathetic and humane and sensually walks the line between their dualities. Through it all, Lehn, Sablin and Inna, find a truth amongst the madness and sickness of their world.
"Just because you don't believe in sin doesn't mean it isn't out there digging around in people's hearts and minds."
Inspired by his own family's heritage, Away from the Dead is another example of Bergen's sensual language examining longing in all of its forms in any context. Whether Lehn is longing for knowledge or understanding, and Sablin and Inna for acceptance, safety and love, Bergen is a writer that I take my time reading and makes me slow down to enjoy every last little word and phrase and reading his works brings me to the present. This new novel is an ambitious and thematically dense piece of literature for under 230 pages. I definitely would have liked to read and learn more about these characters, after Bergen imprinted their ethos onto me with his always beautiful writing. I will always read what David Bergen writes because he is that good, yet again.
"She rolled her eyes and said that faith was more difficult than disbelief."
"To speak of what is in my head is to condemn myself."
"Prayer is not a selfish request. It is being humble. Admitting your helplessness."
"You buy it and you read it. I will charge you what it is worth and usually will charge you less than it's worth. For a book can be priceless. The peasants had no idea what they were turning against. The goal was to destroy the kulak, the landowner, the bookshop owner. Heads would roll, and anything that those heads had produced, including books, would go as well. Lehn was appalled. He saw danger. He smelled fear. He had believed that selling books was an innocuous trade. The first question he should have asked himself was what class he belonged to, his origin, education, profession. Hence, his fate. He was doomed."
"He developed the photograph and had it delivered to the Martens family in Kiev. He had been prac- tising at the estate with the camera, taking photographs of the horses, and the land around, but this was the first time he had photographed people, and though at first his hands were shak- ing, and he believed someone might stop him, he discovered that the camera was respected, and it was like a shield, and he was not seen as a poor peasant boy, but as a young man who wielded a certain power. People liked the idea of being seen, of being held in one place in a certain space. It was to his benefit that people were generally self-centred."
"He said that of course he was older and she was younger and in general she could have the pick of the various ripening on the vine, and perhaps she already had her eye on a young tomato, and if that was the case, he would be very happy for her, though he would be sad for himself, but should that not be the case, and if he was the preferred tomato, then they should get married sooner rather than later, because it was essential that she have another child, and that that child be theirs, not someone else's. He said that she was sad, and he didn't like it when she was sad, and perhaps she didn't even know that she was sad. Did she? "
October 31, 2023
A solid 3.5
Read
September 28, 2023Giller long list #3
Stark writing of a stark time. Not one superfluous word in this novel of war. There are no winners. Just survivors. I thought it was very good. This one will be short listed no doubt maybe.
Stark writing of a stark time. Not one superfluous word in this novel of war. There are no winners. Just survivors. I thought it was very good. This one will be short listed no doubt maybe.
September 25, 2023
Beautifully written.
February 25, 2024
Away from the Dead is an excellent novel set in Ukraine during the Russian Revolution and the subsequent civil war. The author brilliantly portrays the profound sense of chaos that impacted everyone during that time as the law and social boundaries broke down. The degree to which the social and economic structure was overthrown is portrayed particularly well. The characters are compelling and their stories show the human impact of the huge political and military events happening throughout the former Russian Empire at the time. I knew the Russian Revolution was an important event, but until I read this book and another novel about it recently, I really did not fully comprehend the traumatic impact it had on everyday people. I highly recommend this book.
December 2, 2023
I loved this book even though bad things happen. My grandparents lived in and through the world narrated in this novel. Of course there's more to say than that. Exquisite narration, finely crafted characters, layered plot, and more. It's a story about love and loss, class and economy, politics and religion, the good and the beautiful, war and peace.
September 6, 2024
An interesting read about the Russian Revolution.
A story of ordinary people in a tumultuous time.
Page 178. “God is a handy excuse for doing evil.”
I’m grateful my grandparents immigrated to Canada from the Ukraine.
A story of ordinary people in a tumultuous time.
Page 178. “God is a handy excuse for doing evil.”
I’m grateful my grandparents immigrated to Canada from the Ukraine.
September 27, 2023
Gut wrenching. Lives full of drudgery and terror, with occasional glimpses of beauty. Powerful writing.
November 4, 2024
Story of people living through the Russian Revolution around the German colonies in Ukraine. Touches on part of my family history.
October 11, 2025
Definitely has got me curious about my own Mennonite heritage again. But boy this is so well written. Simple, sparse prose. A Devastating Mennonite classic!
September 21, 2023
this was good although not especially original. Echoes of the Russian classics and more recent works like The Tsar of Love and Techno, Bergin's story was fascinating, detailing the lives of ordinary Ukrainians living in tumultuous times. A worthy longlisted title for this year's Giller. Wouldn't be surprised if it is shortlisted but I do not see this one winning.
September 10, 2023
Spare and beautiful writing about people I was made to care about in a time and place in history I knew little about. If I lived in Winnipeg I would be at McNally Robinson for David’s reading and conversation on September 21. As I’m not I’ll attend the livestream on YouTube.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=d1JG8IS...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=d1JG8IS...
September 13, 2023
Bergen's novel is a high-quality entry into the increasingly crowded Russian Mennonite experience during World War I and the Russian Revolution. It includes more of the urban experience than most, and includes key relationships with non-Mennonites.
The novel is short; I wish it were longer with more detail about some relationships and experiences. It was almost too spare, which is why I give it only 4 of 5.
The novel is short; I wish it were longer with more detail about some relationships and experiences. It was almost too spare, which is why I give it only 4 of 5.
September 16, 2023
I read this book because it was recently nominated for the long list for the Giller prize. Although I don't normally gravitate to books set in war-time, this book is exceptionally well-written, and is propelled along by the character development and the loves and losses of the people in the story. The chaos of war and revolution in early twentieth-century Ukraine is ever-present but you keep reading because you want to know what happens to these characters. And we do find out, right down to the very last page which lists what happens even to the next generation, after the story is over. The writing is spare, with not an extra word or a word out of place. David Bergen is already a Giller prize winner and I will seek out more of his previous books to read.
January 15, 2024
David Bergen is a terrific writer. He won the 2005 Giller Prize for The Time in Between and was a long listed nominee for the prize in 2023 for Away from the Dead. The story takes place in Ukraine during the Russian Revolution and portrays the effects of these times on the main characters.
The portrayal of these characters is excellent. Bergen is a master of "show don't tell" and it is a pleasure to read about Lehn, Inna, and Sablin. Although it is a short novel, it seems amazingly dense in terms of how much happens, and how well we get to know the characters.
The story is quite bleak since it almost exclusively focuses on war and violence, but I am grateful for the affirmative ending which provides some hope for the reader.
The portrayal of these characters is excellent. Bergen is a master of "show don't tell" and it is a pleasure to read about Lehn, Inna, and Sablin. Although it is a short novel, it seems amazingly dense in terms of how much happens, and how well we get to know the characters.
The story is quite bleak since it almost exclusively focuses on war and violence, but I am grateful for the affirmative ending which provides some hope for the reader.
April 24, 2024
I found this book deeply moving. The characters were well written and the events, while oftentimes horrible and unsettling, were believable and felt authentic to what may have happened to people living in that area of Ukraine at that time. Following the experiences of a handful of connected characters as the experience both the horrors of war and the joys of family and simple pleasures.
I was particularly touched by this as my grandparents came to Canada from Ukraine around this time and I know so little about what life was like for them there. All I know is that my grandmother said life was hard and the Cossack soldiers treated the people poorly. This was hard to read sometimes but I’m glad I read this to learn more about what life was like for my ancestors.
I was particularly touched by this as my grandparents came to Canada from Ukraine around this time and I know so little about what life was like for them there. All I know is that my grandmother said life was hard and the Cossack soldiers treated the people poorly. This was hard to read sometimes but I’m glad I read this to learn more about what life was like for my ancestors.
May 5, 2024
To me, this book is Canadian literary awards bait. It’s hard to describe it but you know it when you see it - a writer who has won awards for earlier work, a timely topic (or something close to it), a whole lot of praise from orgs like the CBC, but very little coverage outside of that.
I wavered between flying through it and desperate to read something else. Subtlety and understatement work well if you make me care about the characters, but this fell short. It felt like the author was trying to echo the style of great Russian writers like Gogol and Chekhov, but something was missing for me.
It felt like a book that would be assigned in a university-level Canadian Lit glass – a good writer, a timely subject, excellent technical execution, and often a chore to read.
I wavered between flying through it and desperate to read something else. Subtlety and understatement work well if you make me care about the characters, but this fell short. It felt like the author was trying to echo the style of great Russian writers like Gogol and Chekhov, but something was missing for me.
It felt like a book that would be assigned in a university-level Canadian Lit glass – a good writer, a timely subject, excellent technical execution, and often a chore to read.
July 21, 2024
The prose is as perfect as can be and the beauty of the writing immersed me in the story, dousing me with pleasure constantly. I am amazed at the depiction of the human spirit, how in the unremitting devastation of death and destruction, these people still create live’s worth living, celebrating their humanity in many diverse ways that all point towards cultivating dignity. So well written so as to be an easy read, with every character distinct and memorable, evoking hope and despair, trust and mistrust. When I read a book like this I say a prayer of thanks to the author, whose evidential toil has produced such a rich blessing.
October 24, 2023
Away from the Dead might be David Bergen’s most complete novel. I enjoy his writing, but not always his stories. He packs a great deal of meaning and emotion into his clipped sentences, and there is never anything predictable about his plotting. All of this is true in his latest novel, which I found more compelling than his other works. The novel should not be relied upon for its historical accuracy, as there are numerous anachronisms throughout. Like Bergen’s The Time In Between, I found the descriptions of combat a little underwhelming. I understand the book is not meant to be All Quiet on the Western Front, but the sound of assaulting an enemy trench line might be better described than “the click and clack of battle”, or something like that. What I found most striking about the novel was how the author deftly wove together scenes of cruelty and compassion in a way that was never drippy or hyperbolic. And, given recent events in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, the message at the core of the story is a rather timely one.
December 28, 2023
A bleak, character driven portrait of the Russian Revolution from a Ukrainian POV.
It's very well written but I found a strange disconnect from the characters and I think that's because there were too many of them. That might have been because I consumed the audio rather than physical book.
Still, it's one of favourite reads of 2023 - in any format.
It's very well written but I found a strange disconnect from the characters and I think that's because there were too many of them. That might have been because I consumed the audio rather than physical book.
Still, it's one of favourite reads of 2023 - in any format.
February 2, 2024
Giller long list nomination. Anarchists, Bolsheviks and the White Army go back and forth throughout the Ukraine with the local residents switching loyalties as necessary. The time is during the Russian Revolution. We watch as a small group of people do what they must to survive these tough, turbulent times....and many don't.
April 5, 2024
What incredible writing. I wasn’t excited to pick this up but did anyways for book club. So happy I did. What dark and horrifying times, especially nearing the end when the characters didn’t know who was invading them and which story to tell. I can’t imagine and don’t want to. Such spare writing that documented everything. What incredible characters. Great read.
July 19, 2024
The story engaged me and made me think about my own family’s experiences and how I know nothing of the lives of my grandparents before they left Ukraine a few years earlier than the time period of this book. Yet I feel a glimpse of what their lives may have been like and why they were willing to leave their country and families behind to come to Canada.
The characters are strong and believable.
The characters are strong and believable.
November 5, 2025
The summary of this book says it is "beautifully written." I do not agree. I found the writing fine, but not brilliant. There were too many characters and too much violence in the book. I couldn't keep straight who was fighting who, as the sides flowed and changed over the course of the narrative.
September 16, 2023
4.5 an absolutely stunning book by one of the most sensitive and astute contemporary writers. A heartbreakingly beautiful story about the power of connection, love, strength, beliefs and humanity in the most inhumane times.
August 19, 2024
I've read several books and short stories from this author and they've all been excellent - this one was no exception. It showcases the best and worst of human behaviour - what we are capable of under extreme circumstances, the choices we make and our resilience.
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