A Biography of a Chance Miracle

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A Biography of a Chance Miracle delves into the life of Lena, a young girl in the bureaucratic and nationalistic environment of San Francisco's Western Ukrainian community. A misfit from childhood, Lena resists the prevailing disdain for all things Russian, embraces the downtrodden, and challenges the status quo, driven by a fear of leading a meaningless life. As her friends pursue higher education, Lena embarks on a mission to protect the city's marginalized, both human and animal, armed with humor, stubbornness, and imagination. Though her efforts yield limited success, her journey to uplift San Francisco's humanity may ultimately lead to her own salvation. Initially perceived as a combative eccentric, Lena emerges as a beacon of hope for the Ukrainian community. Tanja's writing style, marked by haiku-like precision, intertwines surrealism and magical realism with satirical wit and social commentary. The German literary media has praised her portrayal of contemporary Ukraine as humorously absurd yet incisive, drawing comparisons to 19th-century satirist Saltykov-Shchedrin. This provocative work, a finalist for the 2012 BBC Book of the Year Award in Ukraine, has been celebrated as "simply ingenious" by fellow Ukrainian authors.