By
LUMINITZA SAVA and LIDIA SAVA CALLVERT
Published in GRACIOUS LIGHT – Review of Romanian Spirituality and Culture
Romanian Institute of Orthodox Theology and Spirituality
Year XI/Nr. 2 June 2006, New York
Written by Oana Magurean, reporter
Book Review of CHAINED GENERATIONS
Published in GRACIOUS LIGHT Review of Romanian Spirituality and Culture
Romanian Institute of Orthodox Theology and Spirituality
Year X/Nr. 1 March 2005, New York
Written by Pr. Prof. Dr. Theodore Damian
Editor of Gracious Light
Professor at the Manhattan College of New York
This book is a family saga, covering three generations in Russia, their loves, devotion and sacrifices, over a period that starts in the pre-revolutionary days and ends during Nikita Khrushchev’s political thaw, which lifted the Iron Curtain. The story and the characters are based on real facts and events, as they were related to us by our parents and relatives, who lived them.
Announcements
CHAINED GENERATIONS
October 05, 2006
by
Luminitza Sava and Lidia Sava Callvert
“This is a monumental work encompassing the lives and suffering of several generations in the grand tradition of a novel such as WAR AND PEACE…. From the excesses of the Russian Revolution to its brutal aftermath… the authors paint a dramatic picture on a broad canvas. The result is that the reader eagerly turns the page to find out what new fate awaits the charismatic protagonists…a well-told story, excellent characterization and realistic narration of the struggle for survival…” - Edward Uhlan, Publisher, Exposition Press 1974
As men and women of the United States military face danger in countries from Iraq to Afghanistan to those we may never have heard of, we at home use – and sometimes even overuse – what has become a “buzzword” as the reason behind our actions: Freedom. While those of us who know and love freedom may take it for granted, those for whom we seek freedom don’t always know what it is and sometimes may not even want it. On the other side, there are those who have tasted it and would do just about anything, including sacrificing their lives, so that they or their families can live where they want, how they want and with whom they want.
Chained Generations could have been published in 1974 by Exposition Press, but the authors, who had suffered unspeakably under the Communist regime, were afraid to expose their families left behind the Iron Curtain. Even though their long journey took them to a free land, it took them many years to embrace the newly found freedom and to truly understand what it means. This is one family’s three-generation saga of love and sacrifice in the name of freedom. With history as a backdrop, the story takes us from Russia’s pre-revolutionary days through Nikita Khrushchev’s political thaw and the eventual lifting of the Iron Curtain.
Based on real events in the authors’ lives, we follow a couple who will do anything – including swimming across a river to Romania and temporarily, they believe, leaving their young daughter behind – to build a better life for themselves and their child. We learn of their fate, as well as that of their left-behind daughter and eventually of her own daughter, the third generation. Their lives are tumultuous and often uncertain, but they never lose sight of what is important – freedom.
This family will stay with readers long after the last chapter has ended. Follow their loves and heartbreak, hopes and disappointments that culminate with the hope for a bright future for the next generation. A generation that will live in freedom.
