The Museum of Abandoned Secrets [Kindle Edition]

The publisher's blurb makes this sound like a past/present romantic family saga of the kind written by Kate Morton, Rachel Hore et al. which is unfortunate as this is a committed and ambitious literary work which seems to take its influences more from writers like James Joyce and Proust. Zabuzhko has a PhD in philosophy and has taught at Penn State and Harvard - and she draws on both feminist and postcolonial theory in this book which is an intelligent engagement with Ukrainian history and identity through the Soviet period and into contemporary independence.

This is a big book and one which expects the reader's commitment, respect and time. The prose style is fresh and vivid with a strong narrative voice, especially from the sharp-tongued Daryna who is wonderfully caustic about other people's ignorance and prejudices. There are, however, what feel like slippages in the translation, especially at the start of the book, which can be jarring: women in an old photo are `adorned with the towering mousses of chignons' and bodies are `naive to' deodorant rather than innocent of it.

So this isn't in any sense an easy or throwaway read: it's bold and elaborate, politically-inscribed and very self-aware. It doesn't follow a traditional linear narrative or form, and the chapters are organised as `rooms', so if you've ever been frustrated by modernist or post-modernist texts that work through a tangle of narrative threads, this might be one to avoid.

This is the kind of book that could only have been conceived and written after the breakup of the former Soviet Union, and it's an eye-opening read to most of us in the West who are likely to be shamefully ignorant about Ukrainian history (I had to do a lot of Googling while reading this).

So I'm not sure that I'd say I enjoyed this as it's too challenging on literary, historical and theoretical levels for such a simple response - I'm glad I've read it but it was hard going at times. An important book rather than one to love.

Still reeling slightly after the marathon that was this book!
It is a serious and not an easy book, and the sheer weight of it was hard on the wrists, but I was hooked from the start.
It soon became clear that the only way to tackle it was total immersion. Jump in and go with the flow. I'm glad to have been able to concentrate on it over a couple of days, as I feel that stopping and starting it too often would have broken my concentration and left me with a very different impression. As it was I was fascinated, and moved, throughout.
I knew very little of the history of Ukraine post WW2; only that it was a time of great fluctuation, hardship, deportation and plain if not simple murder. The author brings all that vividly to life; her characters, in the past and the present, are rounded personalities: Daryna, Vlada, both Adrians, Pavlo Ivanovych and many more leapt off the page for me and I was increasingly desperate to find out what had actually happened. This wasn't always easy; another reviewer has suggested comparisons with Proust and Joyce, and I do agree with this. The book is rambling at times, obscure, repetitive, and goes in for pages of discussion and argument, on the part of Daryna in particular, in the middle of a scene that should you feel be pushing the story onward, and yet I was never tempted to skip. There is coincidence, and dreams are very important to the story, and this feels right too.
I admit to not having followed events in Ukraine in the 90s and into the new century, and I too had to Google quite a lot. With a history like theirs it was unlikely to be plain sailing. There is corruption and always the influence of the Russians is felt. For me, this book was a revelation; powerful and addictive. I want to know more. I was unsure how many stars to award it, but taking the whole experience into account it must be five.

My reason for the title is that you seriously need time to read this book - I have admittedly rather rushed at it partly because I wanted to know what happened in the story, but also because it undoubtedly deserves to be reviewed to encourage others to tackle it. There's nearly 700 pages of it - almost a Russian doorstop - and I was sorely tempted to cut it in half to make it physically easier to hold and read! It is a remarkable and unusual book and, though I suspect it may have lost something in translation (occasionally one is brought up short by an awkward phrase or word), it grabs you on page one and makes you pay attention. You really do have to concentrate and my Russian history is certainly inadequate - the author gives some suggested background reading on this and I daresay you could refer to the internet as you read. The prose itself is not the easiest - anyone who has read any of Osbert Sitwell's unbelievably long and convoluted sentences will understand! The characters, particularly Daryna, go in for a good deal of soul-searching and philosophising and metaphysical asides, all of it relevant and for me this added to the very Russian feel of the core of the story. The "secrets" reveal themselves and come from the childhood game Vlada and Daryna played as little girls which imitated their forebears burial of precious items, particularly icons which were forbidden. They lined a hole in the ground with something like foil to protect their treasures and I can't help wondering how many of these precious things are lying forgotten underground even now, like the secrets in the book. This book is demanding, but it deserves your effort.