Daughter of the Land

For readers aged 16 and over and those fascinated by Ukrainian ethnofantasy, colorful mystical realism, and stories steeped in our mythology.

Daughter of the Land is a mythical fantasy novel by Ukrainian writer Maksym Butchenko. The book's plot captivates from the very first page. The story is set in the mid-19th century in a serf village in Slobidskyi, not far from Izyum. While working in the fields, a young woman gives birth to a girl. The birth ends with the mother's death, having only managed to look at her child for the first and last time and whisper: "Hanusia." The childless Katria took the girl in. Hanusia grew up in poverty but surrounded by love. She was an ordinary girl, running barefoot and drawing strength from the earth. Sometimes she felt a strange inner pain. Hanusia's happy childhood ended when the lord and his overseer Vanka found the girl in the forest and took her to the lord's estate to amuse the sinister Nastasya Fedorivna. This woman, according to the overseer, is a real Muscovite witch who has bewitched the lord and controls him as she pleases. Nastasya Fedorivna has one peculiarity – she is terribly afraid of sunlight. The servants carry a thick veil over her so that the rays do not burn the skin of the strange lady. Terrified, Hanusia tried to run out of the lord's chambers and tore the window curtain, the sun burned Nastasya Fedorivna's face, an inhuman scream paralyzed the estate, the girl was seized and locked in an empty barn. Awaiting punishment, Hanusia is going through some of her worst moments when suddenly she is seized by some incredible inspiration – she hears music, begins to dance and sing along. This is how the lord's son sees her – Gregor, Hryshko, Gregory. The boy watches this strange dance and hears fragments of lullabies in the girl's song that his mother used to sing to him. Thus, love is born.