>Gritty and atmospheric, The Little Russian, grabbed me and held me in the early twentieth century drama that Jewish Russians experienced.  Vacillating between the horror of pogroms where Jews were massacred, to the lfestyle of a very wealthy grain merchant, we follow the story of Berta Alshonsky.
  As a child, Berta tastes the pleasures of money while staying with wealthy relatives in Moscow. She is sent back to life in the Ukraine, Little Russia, as a grocer’s daughter in a small hamlet when she is no longer needed as a companion to her cousin.   A wealthy grain buyer falls for Berta and life is easy once more until her husband’s secret life as an arms smuggler is revealed.  Berta makes the fateful decision to stay in the Ukraine with her children when her husband flees to America.  The tumultous war time and lost love reminds me of the epic Dr. Zhivago.  Berta’s courage and determination to find her husband are tested in her fight for survival and protection of her children. This first novel for Susan Sherman is an impressive beginning.