Strong Roots

A Memoir of Food, Family, and Ukraine

By: Olia Hercules

Narrated by: Olia Hercules

JAMES BEARD AWARD NOMINEE • When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, award-winning Ukrainian chef and food writer Olia Hercules decided it was finally time to tell her story.

Strong Roots is the story of a century in Ukraine told through four generations of one extraordinary family. It takes us from years of Russification, to Olia’s grandmother’s deportation to snowy wastelands under Stalin, to her aunt Zhenia’s school protest, to her own parents’ flight from Ukraine when their village was occupied in 2022.

This is an ode to the land, to ideas of home and belonging, and to family stories and recipes passed down the generations—the tang of sour cherries, the best way to make borsch. It is an account of resilience in the hardest of circumstances.

Strong Roots brims with hope and fear. It lays bare the compromises and betrayals of generations struggling and surviving through war, peace, invasion and exile. It is an uplifting reminder of how much the human spirit can endure when born from a land rich with strong roots.

Critic reviews

“It’s a breathtaking achievement to depict such pain so exquisitely. And it’s strikingly sui generis. Olia Hercules deftly fuses war reporting, food memoir, an investigation into identity, and an act of resistance to create what I feel compelled to describe as a painting out of words. An instant classic.”—Nigella Lawson

“Only Olia Hercules could write such a cinematic and brave-hearted book examining what it is to live as a Ukrainian family at a time of unimaginable horrors and yet on every page the reader finds grace, strength, and occasionally the sting of dark Ukrainian humor. Strong Roots manages the near impossible: it is both a deeply personal book and a vital historical record.”—Caroline Eden, author of Samarkand and Cold Kitchen

“It is the roots that keep the trees from falling during a storm. Olia Hercules tells us that the same is true for people and nations. It is the roots of culture and dignity that make them unbreakable at the time of war and peace, in Ukraine and beyond.” —Serhii Plokhy, Ukrainian historian and author of Chernobyl Roulette: War in the Nuclear Disaster Zone and The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History

“Fiery, tender, deeply personal, how else to explain the importance of this unflinching account by an acclaimed food-writer—cook, mother, daughter, grandchild—of a people and place in a land under siege? Intimate, moving, and brilliantly written, every page is a treasure trove of memories—her own, her family’s, and through listening to the experience of others. Here, in all its beauty and sorrow, is the story of Ukraine as it is, and was, and surely will be again. Unforgettable.” —Elisabeth Luard, author and Chair Emerita of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery

“A searing, magnificent work. Poetic, personal, and raw. An exploration of what it means to be Ukrainian and to be defiant.” —Andrew Harding, BBC foreign correspondent and author of A Small, Stubborn Town: Life, Death & Defiance in Ukraine

“Sweeping, intimate, defiant, and brimming with love. An exceptional work by a writer of enviable gifts.” —Louise Kennedy, author of Trespasses

Loved it

I thought it was a lovely read, insightful, personal, and interesting. I liked the look back into history of her family, it helped me understand from a single family perspective Ukraine history.

This audiobook is a treasure

First, I read Olia’s book and was so touched by the heart and love in her writing it brought me to tears. Wanting more, I downloaded the audiobook. Narrated by the author, her words come to life and you can feel her passion for her homeland and her roots. The addition of the traditional music between chapters makes the audiobook a masterpiece. 💙💛

Beautiful and heartbreaking

The author’s voice is hypnotic as she shares the story of her family’s Ukrainian history and heritage. Combines wonderful storytelling, beautiful descriptions, and important lessons.

Complicated

Loved the family and garden - however knowing my Ukrainian friends and their real grief this was complicated in feelings for me - sweetest part of book is description of wall drawings in the summer kitchen