Gradually, Oksana and Valentina develop a bond that mirrors Rivka’s friendship with a Muslim girl who saved her life during WWII. Alternating between each girl’s perspective, the narrative also includes occasional interludes about Rivka, a 12-year-old girl who flees Ukraine in 1941, running from the German army that has slaughtered her family. After traveling to Leningrad, they board with Valentina’s formerly estranged grandmother, who secretly practices Judaism. Valentina, meanwhile, resents the unwelcome accompaniment of her school adversary. During evacuation, Oksana, who has been taught that “all Jews are liars,” protests in alarm when Valentina’s mother assumes responsibility for her. In April 1986, in the village of Pripyat, Ukraine, two fifth-grade nemeses are thrown together following the nearby Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion, which kills both of their fathers, one immediately, one through radiation poisoning.
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