First published 2018
Katya works as a midwife in a Ukrainian village where birth and death arrive without warning. She delivers babies in candlelit rooms while shells fall in distant fields. The war creeps closer each day, bringing soldiers who speak different languages and carry different flags. Katya must choose between the safety of silence and the risk of helping those who need her care. Her neighbors disappear one by one. Some flee west toward uncertain refuge. Others vanish in the night, leaving only empty houses and unanswered questions. Katya holds fast to her calling even as the world fractures around her. She catches newborns with steady hands while everything she knows crumbles. The story follows her through seasons of terror and small mercies, where each delivery becomes an act of defiance against a world bent on destruction.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, war, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, survival
Setting: Ukraine
Period: World War II
34 pages · Paperback · Independently published
Content warnings: violence, war