Audiobook Review:The Silence of the Trees by,Valya Dudycz Lupescu narrated by, Xe Sands

The Silence of the Trees by,Valya Dudycz Lupescu narrated by, Xe Sands
Produced by, Iambik

This book is beautiful and mesmerizing, heartbreaking and uplifting all at the same time. I love the superstitions interwoven into the story and how storytelling is so important to the Ukrainian people.

Nadya is 70 years old but still haunted by events in the Ukraine that happened during WWII when she was really a mere child. But this is also about family and the things we keep to ourselves and the things we think others don’t know and how that affects how we live our lives and the relationships we have.

I love that you think Nadya & Pavlov’s relationship is one thing and then as the story unfolds you realize it is something completely different. Ugh how can I explain how this made me feel without spoilers let’s just say with the way it starts out I didn’t expect it to progress as it did. Oh my goodness Pavlov was so not what I expected him to be from the first half of the book. The way I felt about Pavlov was like a rollercoaster ride.

Oh Nadya I just want to hug you and tell you to let things go, explain your life to your children let them really know you and allow yourself to be happy!

I loved the Ukrainian folklore and the holiday rituals in this book and it made me want to do research to incorporate some of these into my own holidays especially the parts about honoring your ancestors it was so beautiful!

The first part of this review is thoughts and feelings I had as I was listening to it. This book evoked such emotion and the narration by Xe Sands brought those emotions through beautifully, the combination of Valya’s writing and Xe’s narration is so great both story and narration are lyrical. Xe’s soft delivery lends beautifully to the written word.

If you can’t tell already I loved this book so much I will be buying the paper book for my public library and if there is ever a cd version I will buy that for the library too. I would recommend this for a book club selection too, I think it would bring about great discussions and if you are a book club that does food and the like from the books you read this one would be perfect for that.

When I was finished I wanted to hit play and start it all over again! I think this book, Nadya and the traditions are something I will think about long after I am done. I also look forward to reading more by this author!

I highly recommend this book!

5 Stars