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RYBALSKI'S SON

by Orest S. Talpash

334 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #08-0400; ISBN 1-4251-7461-2; US$22.95, C$22.95, EUR15.68, £11.85

Related short stories describe events buffeting the Rybalski family during twelve decades, from smuggling in 1896 in the "Old Country" to coming-of-age issues in 2006 in Edmonton, Canada.

About the Book

RYBALSKI'S SON is series of twelve related stories. From smuggling in 1896 in the "Old Country" to coming-of–age issues in 2006 in Edmonton, Canada, every decade brings new adventures and challenges to a member of the Rybalski family. Every ten years, changes in socio-historical circumstances bring about unique problems. As each event unfolds, the reader gains insight into the character traits of that particular Rybalski, the father-son relationship and the circumstances of the people at that particular time and location.

References to real villages, sites and historical events provide for an authentic resonance throughout. Only the characters are fictional. What difficulties buffet these men and women as each generation meets with circumstances unique to its decade? How, in a small village, does one cope with an illegitimate child? With life in Germany during World War II? With a summer job in a mental hospital? With a dysfunctional roommate of the opposite sex?

Taken together, these stories are a record of the collective memory – and the fading of memory – of a family's past.

About the Author

Orest S. Talpash is a third-generation Canadian of Ukrainian ethnic origin. He has a life-long interest in socio-cultural history. Because of this, he has read extensively about the political, economic and sociological circumstances in which the Ukrainian people found themselves during the turbulent decades of the 20th century – the factors affecting their lives in the "Old Country," stresses associated with immigration to Canada, and subsequent issues of identity in the diaspora.

Dr. Talpash practiced Dermatology in Edmonton and taught in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Alberta for twenty-six years. He was active in many Ukrainian organizations when multiculturalism – as a fact of Canadian identity and as government policy – was being implemented. Having lived in the prairie provinces, the Maritimes, Ottawa and Toronto, he is familiar with the organized Ukrainian community across Canada. Following his retirement, he recorded many of the events and anecdotes related to him by family and acquaintances.

Orest is a member of the Writers Guild of Alberta. He and his wife Olesia live in Edmonton, Alberta.

Excerpts