Oxana and the Red Dress is a richly layered, multi-generational story of love, passion, and war set against the background of rural Ukraine in the 1930s, the ensuing Bolshevik political repression, and the early days of World War II.
Oxana Nikolaevna Stepaniaka is a beautiful and talented musician who dreams of escaping her Ukrainian village to become a concert pianist. Finally able to attend the Odesa Academy of Music, she finds her hopes of continuing her education destroyed by political forces and is forced to return home. Pregnant and married to a brutal man she doesn't love, Oxana is eventually caught up in the Soviet Union's repressive collectivization of agriculture. With everyone in her world succumbing to starvation during the man-made Holodomor (Death by Hunger), Oxana and her son make a frightening journey-first to Odesa, and ultimately to Leningrad during the early days of the Nazi siege.
Readers will easily fall under the spell of this deeply drawn saga at whose heart lies the beauty of taboo love and the strength that arises out of shattered dreams. Oxana will linger in the memory of all who meet her.
From Oxana and the Red Dress-
"Oxana sat on her mother's front doorstep one late April afternoon, basking in the warmth of the sun-drenched air. Stretching her legs and leaning her head back, Oxana closed her eyes. Within moments, she was standing in a large room somewhere-she couldn't tell where-but it was dark, completely dark. She was wearing a red satin floor-length dress, and a matching ribbon held her hair. In the distance, a black grand piano was encircled in a halo of bright light. Oxana stepped toward the piano, and suddenly people-hundreds, maybe thousands of people-were clapping and cheering. The audience fell silent as she sat at the keyboard. She touched her fingers to the keys and the hall was filled with beautiful music-"
***
"As soon as Fedor was asleep, Oxana slipped out of the bed and grabbed her dress off the floor. She pulled it across her and sat on the sofa, gazing out the window. The full moon's soft light illuminated the trees. The room was chilly and she shivered, clutching her arms around herself. In her home, she had at least felt Irina and Jakob's spirits, but in this foreign house she had no sense of them. It was as though when Fedor carried her across the threshold, he had carried her into another world. An unbridgeable chasm had opened, and she could never again cross back."
LaWayne Leno is the author of two previous works, The Untold Story of Adele aus der Ohe and Roses of the Prairie.