LIBRARYJOURNAL Jan 29, 2008

Odrach, Theodore. Wave of Terror
Academy Chicago. 2008. c.350p. tr. from Ukrainian by Erma Odrach.
ISBN 978-0-89733-562-1. pap. $19.95.

Verdict: The author’s depiction of village life has the authority of a documentary, his characters are fully developed , and his language is quite earthy for the period. As Pound would say of fine literature, this novel is news that stays news and should be on the shelves of libraries whose patrons care about the world beyond their immediate ambit. Highly recommended.
Background: Three weeks after Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Soviet forces moved into and annexed eastern Poland and, by all accounts, instituted a reign of terror more murderous than the Hitlerite occupation. Odrach (1912–64) was born and lived in the region he grippingly portrays in this searing tale of what it is like to be suddenly under the thumb of the NKVD (the KGB’s precursor). In this area that the Soviets apportioned to Byelorussia (today’s Belarus) and Ukraine, Ivan Kulik arrives as headmaster of a village school in the Pinsk Marshes. From this vantage, he watches in horror as the Soviet yoke descends upon the inhabitants of the area. [Ordrach escaped to the West during the war and settled in Canada in 1953.—Ed.]—Edward Cone, New York