Strong Roots cover art

Strong Roots

A Ukrainian Family Story, Interrupted

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Strong Roots

By: Olia Hercules
Narrated by: Olia Hercules
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About this listen

 Bloomsbury presents Strong Roots, written and read by Olia Hercules, featuring original music performed by Cats & Bats and Olia Hercules.

'An instant classic' NIGELLA LAWSON

'Sweeping, intimate, defiant and brimming with love' LOUISE KENNEDY

'It is the roots that keep the trees from falling during a storm. Olia Hercules tells us that the same is true for people and nations' SERHII PLOKHY

I am writing this story without knowing its end: it begins long before I was born and will continue long after I die. I am writing this story to help myself heal and to make you understand.

Strong Roots is the story of a century in Ukraine told through four generations of one extraordinary family. It takes us from years of Russification, to Olia’s grandmother’s deportation to snowy wastelands under Stalin, to her Aunt Zhenia's school protest, to her own parents’ flight from Ukraine when their town was occupied in 2022.

This is an ode to the land, to ideas of home and belonging, and to family stories and recipes passed down the generations – the tang of sour cherries, the best way to make borsch. It is an account of resilience in the hardest of circumstances.

Strong Roots brims with hope and grief. It lays bare the compromises and betrayals of generations struggling and surviving through war, peace, invasion and exile. It is an uplifting reminder of how much the human spirit can endure when born from a land rich with strong roots.©2025 Olia Hercules (P)2025 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Cultural & Regional Military Feel-Good War

Critic reviews

'Olia Hercules is a beautiful writer. So attuned to the sensual details of the world. Very raw, very honest, in a way I appreciated a lot. And all the ingredients – personal stories, historical context, trauma and hope are so finely balanced. It deserves to be read and admired far and wide' (Charlie Gilmour, author of FEATHERHOOD)
All stars
Most relevant
Oh the ache of it. The warmth. She speaks and I’m there, flour on hands, garlic on breath, the matka stirring. Not just food, no. Family, country, loss. The rhythm of remembering. Her voice – low, sure – carries me back and forward, folding grief into dough. Ukraine not a place now, but a pulse. What she’s lost, what she’s held. I felt it. In the chest, in the belly. Not a recipe book. A life, eaten.

Strong Roots – A Feast of Memory

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Ґероям Слава! дякую... Thank you for sharing the story of your roots, so we can understand more.

Слава Україні

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written for modern audiences, Ukraine explored from deep personal history of food, family, culture and identity.

New classic, engaging storytelling.

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Olia speaks with such lyricism you can almost taste the food and smell the surroundings she’s describing. A combination of Ukrainian history and family stories, this book gives you a glimpse of the heart wrenching pain caused by the forced displacement from your ancestral home . It’s also funny, warm and I cannot recommend it enough. May you all get to go home again

Fascinating, beautiful and moving

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Touched my soul, really. Resurrecting burning questions of complexities of identity and belonging.
Made me reminisce a poetic village beauty
and childhood flavours of beloved
Cherkaschyna - raw milk, honey, brined apples, sourdough, green borscht with stinging nettle and everloving heart and hands of my grandmother.

Engaging with Ukrainian culture is a great way to support Ukraine.

For many, food is often the first point of contact in experiencing and learning about a country.

Books would next step.

Strong Roots is both.

I urge you to order a book, to read and deeply engage with a story and Ukraine.

Sincere, raw, powerful, heartbreaking, yet inspiring.

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