Two sisters are forced back into each other’s orbit when their elderly Ukrainian father announces he intends to marry a much younger gold-digger obsessed with immigration status, luxury goods, and absolute domestic conquest.

What begins as comic farce slowly devolves into the realities of migration, displacement, Soviet memory, generational fracture, and the humiliations of ageing. Lewycka balances absurdity with genuine warmth, which is probably why the novel managed to become both a bestseller and one of those books people aggressively hand to friends while saying “trust me.” Underneath the tractor jokes is a story about survival, exile, and the stories families build to keep themselves together.

2005 Viking first edition paperback. Clean interior with tight binding; boards and jacket show light shelf wear and minor rubbing from handling. A solid, attractive copy.