A tale of two sisters and two brothers during the first and second wars of Russian aggression in a small village in Chechnya. Love, loss, memory, generations, story, community, friendship, ethnicity, history, war, resistance, complicity, empire, refugee, human sex trafficking, and black market economies are some of what this novel encompasses.

Rich and complicated are words that come to mind.

If you, dear reader, are squeamish about war time torture: do. not. read.

This book is a reminder to me that this very day, somewhere on this very planet, people are being tortured, abused, untethered, oppressed, in starvation and deprivation due to political forces. How can this be happening on our watch?

My husband gave this 5 stars; my mother 4.5. I give it 4 – only because of war/torture scenes.