Award-winning author whose novels, including her debut, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, united comic skills with serious themes
Marina Lewycka, who has died aged 79 from a degenerative brain condition, appeared to achieve a kind of fairy-tale transformation when, in her late 50s, her comic debut novel became a million-copy bestseller.
However, behind the literary stardust that settled on the British Ukrainian novelist after A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian lay not just “a long career as an unpublished author”. That book grew from intimate involvement with the sorrow and pity of war-torn Europe: a “measureless ocean of tears and blood”.
She developed a unique gift for converting the memory of trauma – not just in her family’s background, but that of others too – into exuberant fiction. Its warmth, fun and sympathy embodied a conviction that humour “sees us through hard times and keeps us in touch with our essential humanity”.
After her award-winning debut in 2005, five further novels united comic skills with serious themes. They not only charmed and entertained readers but revealed the “hidden worlds” of global upheaval behind the everyday business of multicultural Britain.
