Sasha Vasilyuk

Ukrainalaisen suvun riipaiseva selviytymistarina.”Sankarien sukua on yhtä aikaa historiallinen eepos, mukaansatempaava perhesaaga ja tarkkanäköinen tutkielma moraalista, selviytymisestä, toivosta ja rakkaudesta – huikea saavutus.” – kirjailija Lara PrescottVuonna 2007 Ukrainassa kuolee Jefim Šulman – aviomies, isä, isoisä ja sotaveteraani. Jefimin leski löytää yllättäen miehensä tavaroista kirjeen KGB:lle, ja perhe joutuu muuttamaan käsitystään miehestä, jonka luuli tunteneensa, ja maasta, jonka puolesta Jefim kärsi.Vuonna 1941 nuori Jefim liittyi puna-armeijaan puolustaakseen maataan ja juutalaisperhettään Hitleriä vastaan. Sodasta selviytyminen vaati kuitenkin uhrauksia, joita hän ei osannut kuvitellakaan – ja jotkut salaisuudet on vietävä hautaan asti.Toimittaja ja esikoiskirjailija Sasha Vasilyuk kasvoi Ukrainassa ja Venäjällä ennen kuin muutti Yhdysvaltoihin 13-vuotiaana. Vasilyuk opiskeli journalismia New York Universityssä ja toimittajana hän erikoistui Itä-Eurooppaan. Hän asuu San Franciscossa miehensä ja kahden lapsensa kanssa. Sankarien sukua perustuu löyhästi kirjailijan oman isoisän tarinaan."Vasilyuk osaa kirjoittaa kovuutta ja kauneutta samaan hetkeen ja lauseeseen. Vasilyuk on rakentanut tarinaan koukkuja, jotka houkuttelevat kääntämään sivua. Jaakko Kankaanpään konstailematonta suomennosta on ilo lukea." - Helsingin Sanomat

Winner of the 2025 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature Gold Medal Winner for the 94th Annual California Book Awards Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize A riveting debut novel, based on real events, about the price of secrecy, the weight of lies, and one man's drive to protect his family from his past. Ukraine, 2007. War veteran Yefim Shulman was beloved by his children, wife, and coworkers. But in the days after his death, his widow, Nina, finds a letter to the KGB in his briefcase. Yefim had a lifelong secret, and his confession forces Nina and her children to reassess the husband, father, and grandfather they thought they knew and the bonds they'd formed with him and each other. Following one family over the course of 70 years and three generations, Sasha Vasilyuk shines a light into the shadowy corners of a marriage marred by secrecy and the sacrifices people make to survive under a paranoid. Compassionate, gripping, and intimate, Your Presence Is Mandatory is "at once a historical epic, an engrossing family saga, and an astute examination of morality, survival, hope, and love" (Lara Prescott).

Winner of the 2025 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature Gold Medal Winner for the 94th Annual California Book Awards Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize A riveting debut novel, based on real events, about a World War II veteran with a secret that could land him in the Gulag, and his family who are forced to live in the shadow of all he has not told them. Ukraine, 2007. Yefim Shulman, husband, grandfather and war veteran, was beloved by his family and his coworkers. But in the days after his death, his widow Nina finds a letter to the KGB in his briefcase. Yefim had a lifelong secret, and his confession forces them to reassess the man they thought they knew and the country he had defended. In 1941, Yefim is a young artillerist on the border between the Soviet Union and Germany, eager to defend his country and his large Jewish family against Hitler's forces. But surviving the war requires sacrifices Yefim never imagined-and even when the war ends, his fight isn't over. He must conceal his choices from the KGB and from his family. Spanning seven decades between World War II and the current Russia-Ukraine conflict, Your Presence Is Mandatory traces the effect Yefim's coverup had on the lives of Nina, their two children and grandchildren. In the process, Sasha Vasilyuk shines a light on one family caught between two totalitarian regimes, and the grace they find in the course of their survival.