Night Train to Odessa

by Mary L. Grow

Elvira Maria Andrushko, a young widow, flees the embattled countryside bound for the safe haven, Odessa. As the night train approaches she is violently separated from her small children and arrives in the seaport alone and traumatized. Bewildered by the city’s harshness, alienated by unhelpful authorities, and tormented by her loss, she searches Odessa hoping to find her children.

When she meets Michail Lukashenko, an artisan who ekes out a living with a puppet theatre, she is attracted by his charm and the fairytale performances that entertain hundreds of children, who could be her own. But the innocent faces cheering in the crowds are not all happy, nor have they all come to watch the show. Elvira Maria reluctantly enters an underworld where the price of life and the cost of war dictate the terms of survival.

Night Train to Odessa is a beautiful and moving novel of hope and courage, and a loving tribute to Odessa.

350 pages, Paperback

Published August 21, 2023

Reviews

[Wisconsin Alumni]

Mary L. Grow 72, MA’85, PhD’91
Author

From the author:
In 1919, as the Russian Civil War rages in Ukraine, unlikely allies join Elvira Maria Andrushko to search for her missing children in the beleaguered seaport Odessa. This suspenseful novel of hope and courage, now more timely than ever, is a loving tribute to Odessa.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...

[Susanne Fallon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book about the Russian war against Ukraine. Very interesting