March 12, 2015

A novel based on biography

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“And I Was There: A Novel Based on the Life of a Ukrainian Immigrant,” by Martha Elliott. Virtualbookworm.com Publishing Inc., 2014. 482 pp. ISBN: 978-1-62137-575-3, paperback, $19.95. 

Martha_IlliottThe cover of “And I Was There,” the debut novel by Martha Elliott, describes the work as “a novel based on the life of a Ukrainian immigrant.”  It is, in fact, a novel based on the real-life events in the life of the author’s grandfather, Stepan Bemko.

Bemko was born in 1885 in the tiny village of Vivsia in Galicia (Halychyna), left his family at the age of 12, came to America in 1903 and died in 1978 at the age of 93 – a life full of struggles and changes, beginning with peasant life in “the heart of Ukrainian nationalism” in what was then part of Austria-Hungary and transitioning through the many changes in America through most of the 20th century.

Two of Bemko’s brothers were able to join him in America. As the Bemko family grew, Stepan never tired of telling stories to his children, and later to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren – not only fairy tales and stories about brave Kozaks, but also about his life.  His stories inspired the book’s title – many of them ended with, “There was a big feast.  And I was there.”

From the time he first left home, Bemko corresponded with his parents. Although distance and circumstances, particularly those in Ukraine, slowed the exchange of letters, correspondence with his family in Ukraine continued throughout Bemko’s life, first with his parents and later with his sister.

Ms. Elliott’s mother – Stepan’s daughter Anastasia, in whose home Bemko lived during the author’s childhood and teenage years – faithfully kept all his letters, along with photographs and other important family documents.  It is these preserved mementos, together with Bemko’s stories, that form the basis of the book.

Often, when reading a “fictionalized biography” or “story based on real events,” the reader is left wondering what might be true, and what is fiction. To answer such questions, Ms. Elliott has thoughtfully provided a short afterword to the book, summarizing the actual known events in Bemko’s life. The story of Stepan Bemko’s life is no doubt similar to the life story of many immigrants; at the same time, it is unique because “we were there.”

“And I Was There” is currently available through Amazon.com, $9.99 for e-book (Kindle) and $19.95 for the paperback edition, as well as directly from the publisher at www.vwpublishing.com for $19.95.Martha_Illiott

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