East European, Ludmilla, Nadezdha, Nikolai, Botticellian breasts, squabbling, amusing, hilarious, touching, accessible, life, tacky, outrageous, superb, language, Vera.
"Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a glamorous blonde Ukrainian divorcee. He was eighty-four and she was thirty-six. She exploded into our lives like a fluffy pink grenade, churning up the murky water, bringing to the surface sludge of sloughed-off memories, giving the family ghosts a kick up the backside."
"When I saw the car pulling into the driveway and I saw her getting out and walking towards the house, can you imagine Nadezhda, I performed involuntary excretion in my trousers."

Marina Lewycka (A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian)