How It Was

Vera Kharkova, born in 1922, witnessed and took part in the entire lifespan of the Soviet Union. In the early 2000s, upon her retirement, she began writing down her memories about her life. She wrote about things "as they remained in her memory, in her perception." This book describes the war period starting with the declaration of war in June 1941 and ending with her husband's homecoming in the spring of 1946. It includes the most important event in her life meeting with her future husband in 1943, who became the love of her life. The text consists of two parallel narratives: a description of the author's life on the home front, and the life of her husband on the front during the same time period. The account of her husband's life is based on his letters from the front. Although the memoirs are of a private nature, they vividly depict what the war was like for those who lived through it. Written sincerely and openly, these records make for captivating reading. When the war was over and her husband returned from the front, they moved to Leningrad, where they lived happily until his death in 1973. In addition to Zhorik, about whom she writes in this book, they had two daughters, Vera and Olga. Now the author lives in St. Petersburg. She has six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

I had done everything right, just as I had been taught. I had set a goal and worked toward it. I thought that if I saved all that I could, my dream would soon come true. I was eleven years old. As the day for my great reward neared, my bubble was broken. I watched as my trophy slipped through my fingers and into the hands of someone else. It hurt at first, thinking about all of the fun times that I had missed, working many jobs and saving every penny for a new bicycle. Yet in a profound way, the Lord and my parents were teaching us about compassion and giving and working toward a goal. My older brother and I were blessed beyond measure by that lesson. I reach out to parents and especially Christian parents to be creative with solid life lessons and your children will be solid believers when they grow old. If you are a grandparent, you will want to read this story to your grandchildren. They will be blessed and you will return to times past when life was simple. Much has changed since those days, but that's just the way it was growing up in our house.

Ten-year-old Xan tells about the life of Dooms, the cheetah which became his pet and lived with his family in Kenya, Africa.

AS FEATURED ON EMMA KENNEDY'S BOOKSHELF 'IMMERSIVE, AMAZING, REMARKABLE' MARIAN KEYES 'JANET ELLIS WRITES WITH TENDERNESS AND WISDOM' ERIN KELLY 'AN ATMOSPHERIC, CLEVER NOVEL THAT WILL GET UNDER YOUR SKIN' RED Marion Deacon sits by the hospital bed of her dying husband, Michael. Outwardly she is, as she says, an unremarkable old woman. She has long concealed her history - and her feelings - from the casual observer. But as she sits by Michael's bed, she's haunted by memories from almost forty years ago . . . Marion Deacon is a wife and mother, and not particularly good at being either. It's the 1970s and in her small village the Swinging 60s, the wave of feminism, the prospect of an exciting life, have all swerved past her. Reading her teenage daughter's diary, it seems that Sarah is on the threshold of getting everything her mother Marion was denied, and Marion cannot bear it - what she does next has terrible and heart-breaking consequences for the whole family. Janet Ellis writes of the exquisite pain of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, the complexity of family and a mother-daughter relationship that is as memorable as it is utterly believable. 'ELLIS WRITES BEAUTIFULLY' DAILY MAIL 'AN EMOTIONAL EPIC' GOOD HOUSEKEEPING 'AFFECTING, ENGAGING AND READABLE' OBSERVER 'A TALE OF SILENCES, SECRETS AND MISUNDERSTANDINGS' MAIL ON SUNDAY 'ENGROSSING' MIRROR

In the title story of this collection, neighborhood boys crouch in a backyard toolshed, and conspire to prove their piano teachers to be witches. In "Cannibal Kings," a disillusioned young man accompanies a troubled boy on a tour of prep schools through the Pacific Northwest, only to realize that he has lost his way in life. And in "Come Live With Me And Be My Love," a middle-aged gentleman looks back at his mannered early life as a Ivy Leaguer, married to a vivacious woman but silently yearning for his best friend -- and the sacrifices that each made to uphold their compromising bargain. With a classic storyteller's gift for nuance and understanding, and a poet's grace for language, Andrew Sean Greer makes a remarkable debut with How It Was For Me.