Strong Roots: A Memoir of Food, Family, and Ukraine

About this book

JAMES BEARD AWARD NOMINEE • When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, award-winning Ukrainian chef and food writer Olia Hercules decided it was finally time to tell her story.Strong Roots is the story of a century in Ukraine told through four generations of one extraordinary family. It takes us from years of Russification, to Olia’s grandmother’s deportation to snowy wastelands under Stalin, to her aunt Zhenia’s school protest, to her own parents’ flight from Ukraine when their village was occupied in 2022.This is an ode to the land, to ideas of home and belonging, and to family stories and recipes passed down the generations—the tang of sour cherries, the best way to make borsch. It is an account of resilience in the hardest of circumstances.Strong Roots brims with hope and fear. It lays bare the compromises and betrayals of generations struggling and surviving through war, peace, invasion and exile. It is an uplifting reminder of how much the human spirit can endure when born from a land rich with strong roots.

About the author

Olia Hercules has 2 books in the store, published between 2015 and 2025, mostly in Biography & Autobiography, Cooking.

Details

Format

Paperback, Large Print

ISBN-13

9798217170159

Publisher

Random House Large Print Publishing

Published

August 12, 2025

Pages

320

Weight

13.3 oz

Editions

2 (Hardcover · Paperback, Large Print)

Subject

Biography & Autobiography