National Network for Equitable Library Service

I will die, I will die. And nobody will know my grave. And nobody will come and remember, Only the nightingale will sing. Inspired by a real-life story, Black Sunflowers illuminates one of the darkest times in Ukrainian history: the Holodomor or "death by hunger." The book begins in 1928, in Soviet-occupied Ukraine, where Veronika and her family live on their farm in the close-knit village of Kuzmin. Life is good, despite the Soviet occupation, but soon everything they have known and loved is not just altered, but demolished. Told in two voices — Veronika's and her father, Janek's — Black Sunflowers is a vivid account of the brutal realities of life in Ukraine under Stalin. Veronika and Janek's story is a haunting, yet uplifting testimony to the strength and humanity of the people of Ukraine.