Sasha & Olga
Sasha & Olga is a gripping saga of betrayal, love, suffering and redemption. It is the book Eva Chapman has written, to honour her parents Sasha and Olga, whose lives were incubated in the crucible of suffering and madness, that gripped twentieth century Eastern Europe.
The new millennium finds Sasha dying of cancer in Adelaide. He is saddened by the loss of his wife Olga to schizophrenia, embittered by the thirty-three-year rift with his step-daughter Eva and heart-broken by the descent of his youngest daughter into the same affliction that claimed his wife. In 1999, Eva, the ostracised daughter sets out to heal the family. This mission takes her on several journeys to Eastern Europe to search for roots, to Australia to face Sasha, and to a past which shocks and enlightens in equal measure. The results far exceed expectations and take many surprising turns. Sasha & Olga, a combination of memoir, narrative history and spiritual journey, is the outcome. Eva feels privileged to bring this story of her family to the general public.
Current Position
Eva 1949Eva has now bought the last few hundred copies of Sasha & Olga and the rights. She is currently looking for a publisher to take on a second print run. And would love the book to be published in other languages especially Russian and German.
Germany
On the back cover of Sasha & Olga is a picture of Dr and Frau Hoffmann. The fact that Olga survived was largely due to the Hoffmanns; their kindness, ingenuity and the considerable risks they both took, saved her life. Eva is eternally grateful to them, for without them she would never have been born. In honouring her mother, she honours them.
She hopes that by publishing this book in Germany she may be able to find
The Hoffmanns 1953
their descendants. And in so doing she would like to remind Germans that yet more ordinary citizens, managed to shine in a time that was very dark; who kept their integrity and humanity. The Hoffmanns helped a young, terrified, bereft Ukrainian girl to preserve, as well as her life, some dignity, in a world which had gone berserk. The Hoffmanns had three children, two of whom Olga cared for during the War in Magdeburg. They must still be alive.
Russia
Lena Klimova of Kharkiv is finishing translating Sasha & Olga into Russian. She believes there is a wide readership in Ukraine and Russia. Most Russians,Ukrainians and their descendants, were also traumatised by Stalin and Hitler. Millions suffered and died unknown deaths. Sasha & Olga honours them all.
Read an Excerpt
...read moreSasha and I were summoned to a case conference with my mother and several psychiatrists. Olga announced to the doctors that the baby was an immaculate conception and had been implanted by ‘Them’. The long thick heavy skirt she wore despite the warm weather was, she told the doctors, protection from being implanted again. Darting terrified looks out of the window, she fearfully pulled the skirt more tightly around her.
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Reviews
Only the most cynical will not be moved to tears.~ The Adelaide Advertiser
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