Review of Kalyna by Pam Clark

Katja and Wasyl leave Galicia, now part of Poland, in the early 1900s, lured by the promise of free land in Canada’s West. Their story is told from the settlement of their land near Edna-Star in northern Alberta to Wasyl’s internment in a camp near Banff National Park’s Castle Mountain, and the effect that his internment has on Katja and their children. Life is difficult, but they face it with optimism and cheerfulness. Two generations of the family are present: Katja and Wasyl and their children. Their youngest daughter, Kalyna, goes to university and becomes a lawyer dedicated to cases of injustice. When she meets with the now retired commanding officer of the internment camp, she says “Thank you for dreaming with me, dreaming of what can be possible with forgiveness and understanding” and the reader has the sense that the forgiveness is for the years of internment which has been a shadow on the family for a long time.

I felt that the author captured the setting well. Her descriptions of prairie life, the fields and the seasons were realistic and vivid to the reader. I enjoyed this book although there were times when I had questions. I wondered which language the characters were using. Wasyl is described as a well-respected communicator and active in the local grain growers’ association which is responsible for negotiating a good price for their grain with the grain elevator company. I wondered which language these meetings and negotiations were conducted in. Were his English skills up to the job? He is considered to be very effective in his meetings, but I still wondered. The dialogue throughout the book is very English, but did the family speak Ukrainian on their own?

Reviewed by Hilary Munro