Sasha & Olga (English Edition) [Kindle-editie] beoordelingen het boek quotes

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. Olga escapes from Communist Czechoslovakia with baby Eva in tow. She is not only escaping from tyranny but also from Eva’s father’s family who want to snatch the baby back. Mother and child embark on a ship to Australia as refugees. She meets Sasha on board who falls in love with Olga and her child. Even though he marries Olga he cannot help her overcome her past trauma. Eva bears the brunt of Olga’s extreme and violent mood swings. Olga suffers severe post natal depression after the birth of Valentina . The sudden and unexpected birth of Alexandra several years later tips Olga into psychosis. She believes the new baby to be an alien. She spends the rest of her life incarcerated in a mental hospital. Eva falls out spectacularly with Sasha and escapes to Europe and leaves her family behind. 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.