Under This Unbroken Sky
Shandi Mitchell
Book notes
Countries such as Canada were built on the hopes and dreams of immigrants, many of whom prospered as they turned their vision of a better life into reality. But there are other stories to tell, and this unflinching novel is one of them. Teodor and Maria, a young Ukrainian couple with four children, escape the tyranny of Stalin’s Soviet Union in the 1930s to make new start farming on the harsh Canadian prairies. But within a few years - and with yet another child in the family - they are swindled out of their land and Teodor is brutalised by two years in prison on a trumped-up theft charge. On his release, they painstakingly begin to rebuild their impoverished lives, sharing a broken-down home with Teodor’s abused sister, Anna, and working the land she has bought on his behalf. With determination and back-breaking labour, the fields are ploughed and sowed, the crops grow, they start to make a little money, and Teodor builds a solid house. Gradually the family strengthens and heals. But, just when the future seems hopeful, nature has other ideas in store for the farm, and Anna’s violent, estranged husband has other ideas for everything Teodor has achieved. This is a tragic tale of survival, love and betrayal, how even the most resilient of people can eventually break under the strain. One critic succinctly described it as ‘a beautiful story about two families who have nothing, yet manage to strip each other of everything’.
About the author
Shandi Mitchell spent her childhood on a military base on the Canadian Prairies, but now lives in Nova Scotia on Canada’s east coast, with her husband, Alan, and their dog, Annie. She graduated from university with a degree in English and theatre and works as a film-maker as well as a writer. Her award-winning short films have been featured at festivals across North America, including Baba’s House, which has echoes of her own childhood. Her paternal grandparents arrived in Canada from the Ukraine in 1922, but her Baba (grandmother) never learned to speak English and Shandi knew no Ukrainian. ‘She was as much a stranger to me as were her customs, foods, life and thoughts. I knew nothing of her past and none of her secrets. As a child I was ashamed that she didn’t act more Canadian. In Baba’s House I wanted to explore the ideas of cultural and generational divides and to discover what had been lost and perhaps what could still be found.’ Under This Unbroken Sky is her debut novel.
Discussion points
1. Teodor and Maria are teenagers when they have their first child. Do you think the book fully conveys just how young they are?
2. Would they have been better off staying in the Ukraine?
3. Why do Maria and Anna respond to their circumstances, particularly their pregnancies, so differently?
4. Is there any justification for Anna’s behaviour? Why does she identify so strongly with the coyotes?
5. What is the significance of the book’s title?
6. Canada is today seen as a liberal country. Did the unfair treatment of Teodor and Maria surprise you?
7. Do they in any way contribute to their own problems?
8. Are there parallels which can be drawn with the treatment of immigrants today?
9. What is the book saying about the human spirit? Does the story leave you with a feeling of hope or despair?
10. What do you think the future holds in store for the surviving characters?
Author's view
The catalyst for Under This Unbroken Sky was a search for my family history. I knew my grandparents had emigrated from Ukraine to Canada and that my grandfather died of the flu in the 1930s. I didn’t know my grandmother’s stories. She didn’t speak English, and I didn’t speak Ukrainian. She died when I was 13. I assumed my father had been too young to remember. He had never offered any stories. Apart from a few photographs, the past did not exist. And then, when I was 18, my father told me that my grandfather hadn’t died of the flu. When I tried to verify the facts, family and recorded town histories contradicted his childhood memories. I almost gave up on the search and then I found a newspaper article documenting a devastating tragedy erased by time and buried in shame. Two families destroyed by one incomprehensible act. I was struck by the tone of the article, which spoke to a time charged with racism and poverty. My research had uncovered many other forgotten stories and histories erased, both individually and collectively, that reached across two countries. The revision of the not-so-distant past intrigued me, as did the reliability of memory and what we are willing to remember. I wondered about the blood and bones that my country is built upon. I wondered about my grandfather—who had survived a First World War PoW camp, Lenin, and a trans-Atlantic crossing—only to break in a land of dreams. My grandmother never spoke of the past. I wondered how many other women’s stories had been lost and what it could have been like to have lived in a time of no social or psychological support, no rights, no financial means—would I have been strong enough? Would I have survived? Teodor’s voice came first. He was practising what he was about to say to the prison guard on his release. He was proud and defiant. ‘My name is Teodor Mykolayenko…’ But when the gates opened, he stepped beyond the prison walls and said, ‘Thank you.’ And I thought, Who is this man? So I followed him. He led me to the children and Anna’s wilderness and Stefan’s brutality. It wasn’t until much later that I discovered Maria’s strength. When writing, I tend to start at a personal place: an event, a memory, something in my life experience that I want to explore. But that is where personal history ends and fiction begins. The characters determine their own story; demand their own lives. I try to open myself fully to them and allow them to take my fears, memories, joys, and secrets and do what they want with them. Often when I am most afraid, I feel closest to their truth. For me, this is a story about life—in all its beauty and savagery; the moral lines that divide and join us; and that fine line between those who break and those who don’t. At its heart, Under This Unbroken Sky is a story about love, betrayal and the hunger for freedom.