In 1941 Yefim Shulman, a seventeen-year-old Ukrainian Jew, was in the army. He was more than willing to fight for the Soviet Union in order to stop Hitler. The aftermath of just one battle led to a series of events that he decided to keep secret. At first, it was for his own survival and later for the benefit of his family.
YOUR PRESENCE IS MANDATORY, by Sasha Vasilyuk, is based on actual events and spans seven decades. Brought alive in vivid detail is what life was like for Yefim from WWII to the present war between Ukraine and Russia.
Yefim may not have been perfect, but he loved his wife, children and grandchildren. He was considered a war veteran and a hero. After all, he had made it to Berlin. He knew what the consequences would be for himself and his family if he ever told the truth about the years he was gone. However, concealing the truth from the KGB was not easy. It was not until after Yefim had died did his family discovered the secret he had harbored for so many decades. Did this affect his legacy?
YOUR PRESENCE IS MANDATORY is a debut novel and I found it to be profound and informative. I learned a great deal by reading this book and I consider this to be a good thing. Well written and engrossing, this book is well worth reading.
A riveting debut novel, based on real events, about a World War II veteran with a secret that could land him in the Gulag, and his family who are forced to live in the shadow of all he has not told them.
Ukraine, 2007. Yefim Shulman, husband, grandfather and war veteran, was beloved by his family and his coworkers. But in the days after his death, his widow Nina finds a letter to the KGB in his briefcase. Yefim had a lifelong secret, and his confession forces them to reassess the man they thought they knew and the country he had defended.
In 1941, Yefim is a young artillerist on the border between the Soviet Union and Germany, eager to defend his country and his large Jewish family against Hitler's forces. But surviving the war requires sacrifices Yefim never imagined-and even when the war ends, his fight isn't over. He must conceal his choices from the KGB and from his family.
Spanning seven decades between World War II and the current Russia-Ukraine conflict, Your Presence Is Mandatory traces the effect Yefim's coverup had on the lives of Nina, their two children and grandchildren. In the process, Sasha Vasilyuk shines a light on one family caught between two totalitarian regimes, and the grace they find in the course of their survival.
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