' An instant classic' NIGELLA LAWSON 'Sweeping intimate defiant and brimming with love'
LOUISE KENNEDY 'It is the roots that keep the trees from falling during a storm. Olia
Hercules tells us that the same is true for people and nations' SERHII PLOKHY I am writing
this story without knowing its end: it begins long before I was born and will continue long
after I die. I am writing this story to help myself heal and to make you understand. When
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 Ukrainian chef 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 town 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 grief. 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.
