The Rooster House: A powerful memoir that takes in Ukraine's story

Victoria Belim’s haunting new memoir tells the story of Ukraine through the lens of her own family, from WWII occupation to Chernobyl – to the trauma of today.

Victoria Belim's mother Asya with some of her students, from The Rooster House.

How does the past, recent or distant, shape us? What does identity really mean? Is it linked with nationality, borders, and language — or is it something deeper and richer, connected to the soil itself? What happens when you push the past down because it’s too painful?

Victoria Belim’s book The Rooster House: A Ukrainian Family Memoir, begins with a line from Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard: “If we’re to begin living in the present, we must first of all redeem our past and then be done with it forever.”