Shavlan

A Woman's Journey to Independence

By: Eunice E. Blecker

Narrated by: Christina Gamble

A biographical novel based on a true story.

Sarah Taube cowers in the bakery cellar clutching her three children, listening to the sounds of shooting by the White Cossacks during a pogrom. In order to survive, she enters into a bargain with the ruthless Commissar, Dimitri, an orthodox Jew transformed by tragedy into a high-ranking Bolshevik. Will Dimitri be able to protect Sarah Taube and her family? Will Sarah Taube be reunited with her wanderlust husband, who leaves for South Africa to seek his fortune and find himself, and will she realize her life-long dream to go to America?

This family saga is based on true events in the life of the author’s maternal grandmother, spanning three continents and five decades. It tells of a woman’s journey to independence while living through World War I, deportation from her village in Lithuania, the Russian Revolution, the Civil War, pogroms, and Lithuanian independence. As the story unfolds, the reader is witness to the struggles of Jews in the Pale of Settlement and the strategies they use in coping with Tsarist rule and the anti-Semitic society governing them. Some acquiesce, trying to adapt; some oppose the Tsar by joining revolutionary groups; and others emigrate. The author weaves a matrix of emotions and ideas into her characters as they move in and out of her grandmother’s life. We learn how an uneducated, naïve young girl, raised in Shavlan, a Lithuanian shtetl, becomes an independent, strong-willed, and forceful woman, schooled in the ways of the world – her education obtained by being a witness and participant in world-shaking events.

©2017 Eunice E. Blecker (P)2021 Eunice E. Blecker

Listening adds another dimension to this wonderful story.

I read Shavlan and loved it. Listening to the story after reading it gave me another way to enjoy this story. I could listen while driving or walking or just sitting. Christina Gamble has an easy voice to listen to. This is a wonderful story that should be read or heard.

A most interesting story

Christina Gamble does an excellent job in narrating Shavlan. I felt the novel come alive with every word and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Wonderful Story

This is a story beautifully written. I enjoyed the story so much that I am listening to it again. I couldn’t put it down. It made me feel like I was part of the story. It also made me understand what Ukrainians are going through. Throughout history Jewish people are persecuted. I don’t understand why. I will never understand why.

A memorable listening experience — highly recommend

Through the eyes of one Jewish community in a Lithuanian shtetl Shavlan, Eunice Blecker’s historical novel covers a period from the late 1800s through the Holocaust, vividly depicting the anti-Semitism and oppression experienced daily by the Jews across Europe.

We follow the Grazutis family as they strive to survive the injustices forced on them, first, by Tzarist Russia, later the Soviet regime, and WWI, but also by Lithuania herself. For decades, Sarah Taube Grazutis, the main character--and author’s grandmother--battles every adversity to save her family by bringing them to America. Her triumph resonates with each immigrant who has come to the US seeking freedom.

The narrator brought the characters to life by giving each a unique voice and making the listening experience vivid and memorable.