Capturing the reader from the first page, this book is one of the best my group has read. Developing characters and plot in a brilliantly planned novel, the author carries the story forward to an unexpected end. Several of us read the last 20 or so pages twice, to be sure we didn't miss anything. This is a book we all are passing on to friends and family as a "must read".

What a fantastic opportunity to share a piece of history -- native Germans relocated to the banks of the Volga by the Russian government. However, though attempting a creative approach, the author clearly missed the mark. He couldn't decide if he wanted to express himself in poetry or prose. Given that the poetry was that of the "speaker', it was neither sophisticated nor compelling, and broke up the rhythm of the novel. The prose, with rare exception, wasn't much better...choppy sentence structure, disjointed ideas. More could have been done with the characters while fleshing out the historical backdrop, which was of great interest. My group, so very excited at having won copies of this novel, was most disappointed in the reading experience.