Lost and Found in Russia Review and Excerpt

Lost and Found in Russia

Author: Olga Godim

Genre: Contemporary Woman's Fiction

Blurb:
The book is a contemporary women’s fiction, encompassing the exploration of mother-daughter relationship and a self-discovery tale.
After the shocking revelation that her daughter was switched at birth 34 years ago, Canadian scholar Amanda embarks on a trip to Russia and Israel to find her biological daughter. Intertwined with the account of Amanda’s journey is the story of Sonya, a 34-year-old Russian immigrant and a former dancer, currently living in Canada. While Amanda wades through the mires of foreign bureaucracy, Sonya struggles with her daughter’s teenage rebellion. While Amanda rediscovers her femininity, Sonya dreams of dancing. Both mothers are searching: for their daughters and for themselves.

Excerpt:
“I’ve discovered that you’re not really my daughter. I have another daughter somewhere in Russia.” Amanda held her breath. What would Gloria’s response be to this revelation? Every night, Amanda thought
about ways to put it into words, to explain it to her daughter, but she couldn’t find any better approach than the blunt truth.

“What is it?” A mischievous dimple appeared in Gloria’s right cheek, untouched by the bruises. “A twist from a new book by some obscure Russian writer?”

“No,” Amanda whispered. Of all the possible scenarios she had envisioned during her nightly speculations, she hadn’t thought Gloria would simply discard the news. “Your blood type is ‘O’ negative. The doctor said. Both Donald and I had ‘O’ positive blood. They probably switched you at birth in that Russian hospital.”

Slowly, Gloria’s hands stilled, and she lifted her eyes to look at Amanda. She opened her mouth, attempted a smile, closed it, opened it again, and then blinked.

“This is a joke?”

Amanda shook her head.

“This is the truth?”

Amanda nodded. Unable to watch emotions flickering across Gloria’s face, she surged up and kneeled in front of her daughter’s chair. “I love you Gloria,” she said hoarsely, caressing her daughter’s leg under the worn denim. “You’ll always be my daughter. But there is another one somewhere in Russia. She might be starving, unemployed.”
Amanda’s throat closed. No matter how often such thoughts visited her lately, she had had to fight for air every time.

“She might need my help. Our help. I have to go there and find her. I have to bring your sister home.” She smiled weakly. “Maybe she can be your new designer. Maybe she has inherited Donald’s creativity. Say
something, please.” Amanda’s gray eyes bored into her daughter’s green ones. Would she understand? Forgive?

“So I have another mother somewhere in Russia?” Gloria said, her lips stretching in a mirthless grin.

“Another mother?” Appalled, Amanda pulled away. 

Buy Links:

My publisher:  / Amazon: / B&N: 

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Contact details:

My email: olgagodim@gmail.com

Bio of Author:
Olga Godim is a writer and journalist from Vancouver, Canada. Her articles appear regularly in local

newspapers, but her passion is fiction. Her short stories have been published in several internet
magazines, including Lorelei Signal, Sorcerous Signals, Aoife's Kiss, Silver Blade, and other publications. In her free time, she writes novels, collects toy monkeys, and posts book reviews on GoodReads. You
can find her there:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6471587.Olga_Godim.

Thanks. I can't wait for May to arrive.

It was a great pleasure featuring you on my blog Olga. I wish you all the best with the book sales.
I met Olga through SheWrites, a group for women, interacting and supporting each other in their roles as authors.  Just like me, there are many older women, we call ourselves late bloomers **smile** with questions too numerous to say but always with a helping hand or advice which I for one appreciates extremely.
So this is a big honor to been asked and read Olga's new book. I hope we will see much more from her pen in the coming future.

My 4.5 Star Review

Through the eyes of two mothers we learned more about each of their stories, their fears, sorrows, pain and failures as well as their victories and strong determination to fight and hold on for what are theirs. 

Amanda, a widow for the last five years takes us on an interesting journey from Russia to Israel to find her missing daughter. In the process she discovers more about herself and allow herself the freedom of exploring about life, her love life and men. In the beginning she received some dreadful news coming to grips with the revelation and set out to find a baby left behind thirty-four years ago.

Sonya took us on another journey, this one pulling at the hearts strings as she tried to win the affection of her daughter and make a living for them between two jobs. Her drunken husband unreliable but yet influencing her life greatly. Her struggles with motherhood were at times frustrating, not knowing for sure if she need to be the mother or the peace keeper. Torn between her jobs and her teenage daughter who played her like a fiddle. She makes the wrong decisions and in the process loose her authority as a mother with dreadful consequences  Her daughter played on this until finally she was confronted with the stupidity of her own decisions restoring the relationship between them.

The colorful descriptions of the landscape of Russia, their bureaucratic system and the poverty that clutched this once thriving country in an iron grip urge you on to leave the pages. Israel, the heat and the dangers of suicide bombers draws you into the story making it real and entertaining. Will written with a great plot you are drawn into these characters struggles, the people that shared their lives, making it more colorful making it believable and heart warming. 

Well done Olga Godim.

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