Everyone who saw me read this book asked me what came over me? I mean, how could I read a book about tractors?
Well, I would lie if I would say this book has nothing to do with tractors. It does in a very strange way. You see, the character that begins all the madness is an engineer, an 80 years old engineer. His name is Nikolai. He’s old, half bonkers and bent on rescuing poor Valentina and her genius son from the hard life they live in Ukraine.
And so begins his old age adventure. You see, Valentina is anything but a nice lady, she is bent on doing anything to stay in UK and provide her son a good life, after all he is a genius. So, after much deliberation she marries Nikolai and moves in his house. But Nikolai’s two daughters are not so sure about this reunion. They come in the rescue of their father who is too blinded by Valentina’s big boobs love.
In between chapters we learn a little bit about the history of the Ukrainian tractors and of the black periods in the history of Ukraine itself.
You can’t actually hate any of the characters in the book but nor can you love them. They are all humans, with flaws and good parts as well. The best part of this book is that everything ends well for everybody. The two sisters make amends, Nikolai ends up in an elderly home (but where he can keep his independence and practice yoga butt naked), Valentina, her not so genius son and her baby daughter (not Nikolai’s daughter) go back to Ukraine to her former husband.
It took me around two days to read this book. It was refreshing from my British novels. And, true to one of my resolutions I started reading the books I have in my own bookcase. This way, I won’t hear anyone blame me for hoarding books but not reading them.
