Media Reviews

The Seattle Times - Robert Allen Papinchak [S]tands along the best of Zadie Smith and Monica Ali. It is sometimes outrageous, sometimes bawdy and constantly entertaining.

The Los Angeles Times - Louisa Thomas Strawberry Fields is a comedy about a somber subject: the exploitation of migrant workers, who are drawn or driven to lands of opportunity by degrading and desperate conditions at home, only to become degraded and desperate themselves. But in Lewycka's picaresque version, comic nearly always beats tragic.

The New Yorker Lewycka’s stylistic quirks can sometimes fall flat - a dog with Disney-like abilities to rescue characters gets a recurrent speaking role - but the jostle of voices creates an effervescent comedy, beneath which lies a more sombre look at the costs of globalization.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer - Karen R. Long Fans of Gary Shteyngart's Absurdistan will like this book, but fans of A Short History are in for a letdown. The national stereotypes are broad, and, as Lewycka once again cuts abruptly among multiple points of view, the results are ragged. She risks our forbearance giving voice to a mongrel dog, whose thoughts, printed in all-capitalized text, are as welcome as a hairball.

The New York Times - Liesl Schillinger Strawberry Fields needed longer to ripen. Its plot suggests Vera’s headlines, not Nadia's heartbeats, and the compassion the author undoubtedly feels for the literary-minded Ukrainian girl in the strawberry-stained jeans could have used more water, more sun and fewer stereotypes.

The New Statesman - Nadia Saint Lewycka's real skill, however, is in portraying cultural misinterpretation – not only between countries, but also within them. ...The author's more serious points about immigration are pertinent, but never heavy-handed. No one likes a bargain more than a Ukrainian, and Two Caravans asserts the value of the free things in life, against our materialistic, "mobilfon"-dominated existence.

The Telegraph - Jane Shilling The combination of charm and savagery make Two Caravans a piquant and disturbing read - the fictional equivalent of chocolate laced with chilli.

The Telegraph - Victoria Lane There is no doubt that the elements that worked so well in A Short History .. are also here in abundance. It's just that there is too much other stuff - too many cheap sausages.

The Observer - Francesca Segal Black humour can be one of the most effective conduits for tragedy, but in this case, it simply feels as if desperately important issues are described with too much levity. Similarly, tremendous pathos can be found in an innocent voice describing horror; indeed, some of the darkest and most powerful stories are those seen through the naive and uncomprehending eyes of children. But these are not children and their naivety, particularly when dealing with pie-in-the-sky promises from manifestly suspicious characters, is unconvincing. The subject and the tone feel mismatched at times.

The Globe & Mail - Michelle Berry Marina Lewycka's talent lies in portraying these characters with such depth that when they unintentionally mess up the English language, or when they stroll innocently into the next major disaster, you believe they are strong and capable, you believe they will eventually figure it out, pull themselves up, dust themselves off and carry on. As Andriy says at the end, "There's a special sadness at the end of a journey. For it's only when you get to your destination that you discover the road doesn't end here at all."

Library Journal It is finally the author's keen understanding of how a global consciousness and labor market have come together with a changing European economy that gives this book its gravity and strength.

Kirkus Reviews Strawberry-sweet, but not too syrupy.

Publishers Weekly The plot moves slowly...Lewycka doesn't have a perfect command of all the cultures she aims to represent, making some of her satires broad and unfunny. There are, however, captivating scenes.

Reader Reviews

Marta Oriole
Strawberry Fields Forever
It is a rare comic novel, with laughs on every page, that can encompass so many tragedies and be deeply moving at the same time. Lewycka has brilliantly captured the east-west divide in Ukraine, symbolized by the coal-mining east and the Western-...   Read More

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