Bookvica

[KULTURA PUBLISHING] Sered tsvituchogo chayu [i.e. Among the blossoming tea]

Pidgirskiy, O.

Lviv: Svit dytyny, 1933. Item #1954

28 pp., ill. 17x11 cm. Later Ukrainian binding. Both wrappers preserved within a binding. First and only edition. Good condition. Rare.

The book came our in the serier ‘Children’s library’, that was produced in Lviv by the publisher ‘Svit dytyny’. This edition tells a story of the young traveller, from Ukraine, called Marko Lupenko, who was forced to flee Ukraine with his parents in 1920, and spent first 16 years of his life on Ceylon learning the technology of the tea-growing. It is unclear how much of that story is based on real events, but it represents the general spirit of 1930s, when Ukrainian diaspora was very spreadout all around the globe. The narrator Marko, who lives in Colombo, compares it to Lviv, and notes the similarities of Ceylon and Halytchina. He describes the process of learning and the technology itself, finishing up with the desire to go back to Ukraine and apply his skills there. The book ends with the verse ‘The legenda about the tea leaf’, allegedly translated from Chinese.

Worldcat locates the only copy at University of Alberta Library.

Status: On Hold