Hardly Ever Otherwise
By Maria Matios
2007
First Published
4.30
Average Rating
178
Number of Pages
Everything eventually reaches its appointed place in time and space. Maria Matios' dramatic family saga, Hardly Ever Otherwise, narrates the story of several western Ukrainian families during the last decades of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and expands upon the idea that "it isn't time that is important, but the human condition in time." In Matios' multi-tiered plot, the grand passions of ordinary people are illuminated under the caliginous light of an ethereal mysticism. Digressions on love, envy, transgression, together with atonement are woven into the story. Each character in this outstanding drama has an irrefutable alibi, a unique truth, and a private conflict with honor and duty. Her characters do not always act in accordance with logic and law books, as the laws of honor clash with the laws of the heart. And this is why it is hardly ever otherwise.
Avg Rating
4.30
Number of Ratings
517
5 STARS
53%
4 STARS
30%
3 STARS
13%
2 STARS
4%
1 STARS
1%
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Author
Maria Matios
Author · 7 books
Maria Matios is a contemporary Ukrainian writer. Winner of the “Book of the Year 2004” and of the Taras Shevchenko National Award in 2005 (for her novel Sweet Darusia). Maria Matios bases her books on the unique experiences of her family, whose roots go back as far as 1790. She was born in the village of Roztoky in the Bukovyna region. Presently she resides in Kyiv.
