In the heart of Ukraine's fertile lands, thirteen-year-old Oksana Kovalenko leads a simple life with her family. The rolling fields and rustic charm of her small farming village are all that she knows. That is, until the Soviet Union takes power, and her world is turned upside down.
As increasing authoritarianism and threats of land and food confiscation loom, Oksana fights to protect her loved ones from hunger and the loss of everything they hold dear. Her strength and resilience are tested as she is forced to navigate through the chaos, witnessing immense suffering as famine erupts due to the regime's grain requisition. Threatened with being labeled an Enemy of the State, her family and friends endure persecution. She watches in horror as her village is reduced to starvation and despair. Forming unexpected alliances, she finds courage in friendship as she joins an underground movement that plans covert operations to feed starving villagers.
Throughout this ordeal, Oksana grows from a hopeful schoolgirl into someone determined to protect her heritage at all costs. Cole's powerful and empathic story telling revolves around themes of survival against tyranny, familial bonds in times of crisis, loss of innocence amidst political upheaval, and the resilience required to withstand historical tragedies such as famine and purges that characterized Stalin's rule over Ukraine, in what is now known as the Holodomor.
A Grain of Hope reminds us of the human toll of war and oppression and pays tribute to the strength of the human spirit. Oksana's story will stay with you long after you've turned the last page.
