Your Presence Is Mandatory

By Sasha Vasilyuk,

Book cover of Your Presence Is Mandatory

Book description

Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize

A riveting debut novel, based on real events, about a World War II veteran with a secret that could land him in the Gulag, and his family who are forced to live in the shadow of all he has not told…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep the lights on. Or join the rebellion as a member.

Why read it?

1 author picked Your Presence Is Mandatory as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I met Sasha Vasilyuk, the author of the family memoir Your Presence is Mandatory, just after she found her agent and was shopping her book to publishers. I'm so glad that unlike so many of its characters, this book found a home! This painful story of a family alternately rooted and uprooted in Ukraine, Germany, and Russia during and after World War II, and of a patriarch harboring dark secrets in an effort to spare those he loves, helped me to understand a great deal about today's conflict. How did Ukrainians who were occupied or captured by the German Army…

Want books like Your Presence Is Mandatory?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Your Presence Is Mandatory.

Browse books like Your Presence Is Mandatory

Book cover of Sunny Side Up
Book cover of The Secret Life of Secrets: How Our Inner Worlds Shape Well-Being, Relationships, and Who We Are
Book cover of What Lies Between Us

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,080

readers submitted
so far, will you?

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in family secrets, secrets, and veterans?

Family Secrets 208 books
Secrets 271 books
Veterans 90 books