Author: Siobhan Curham
The Secret Sewing Society is a historical women’s fiction and a family mystery book by Siobhan Curham. The novel follows Zirka and Perla during the 1940s in Ukraine, which was occupied by Russia and then Nazi Germany, as well as Ana, their descendant in 2022, who inherits the dressmaker’s shop in Ukraine and returns to Ukraine from the UK during the current war with Russia to research her family history. Therefore, this is a compelling story of three relatives told across time, but in similar circumstances.
However, the novel is not just a wartime or historical vs contemporary story. It is so much more than that because the author also writes about women’s work, textiles, memory, resistance, and intergenerational silence. Sewing is not presented as a communication system, an act of resistance, or a survival strategy. The most interesting theme was that embroidery and sewing can be used as a coded language, thus their significance goes well beyond a domestic practice. I knew that sewing was used as a code language during WWII because the UK’s National Archives has some illustrations of women’s dresses with Morse code.
The Needles of Freedom, a pact Zirka and her sister Olena made, is framed as a war effort showing how women used their skills to perform acts of resistance and, in this case, preserve Ukrainian history, identity, and culture. However, we rarely hear about women’s resistance; it is always military resistance and battles we learn about, so this novel was really refreshing. Therefore, what I found particularly interesting is that the novel shows how women’s work can be both visible and invisible at the same time. Sewing is visible because everyone can see the finished garment, but the meaning behind the stitches remains hidden to those who do not know how to read it. This makes embroidery a perfect metaphor for women’s history more broadly. Women’s contributions are often present everywhere, but they are not always interpreted as political, intellectual, or historically important. In this novel, the domestic space becomes one of the places where resistance is organized and preserved.
Ana’s story, set in 2022 after the pandemic in the UK, unfolds with a focus on why her mother, Viktoria, cut off contact with her grandmother, Zirka. On her deathbed, her mother gives her a tin containing ownership papers for a house in Ukraine and a piece of fabric, so Ana goes to Ukraine, where she eventually also discovers other documents, letters, and Perla’s diary, all carefully hidden in various parts of the house. The diary becomes a bridge between private family pain and national history. The family mystery also shows how silence can travel across generations. Zirka, Viktoria, and Ana are separated not only by geography and time but also by things that were never explained. This is a very compelling part of the novel because it shows that secrets may protect people in one historical moment, but later they can become a burden for those who inherit them. Ana’s discovery of the diary is, therefore, not only about solving a mystery but also about recovering a family history that was fragmented by war, migration, and fear. While Zirka’s and Perla’s story is a story of survival and battle, Ana’s story is also a story of new beginnings, not just the battle.
The dual timeline of the 1940s and present-day Ukraine is particularly timely because it shows old historical grievances between Ukraine and Russia, which I did not know about until I read this book. The story unfolds in Lviv, Ukraine, and the author describes the Russian occupation from WWII and the most recent Russian invasion, drawing parallels between the two experiences. What I loved is how history is described through family stories, houses, letters, diaries, and relationships. This is also a reminder that war is not only happening on battlefields, but everywhere.
Overall, The Secret Sewing Society was yet another book I was recommended to read, and I said, huh, when I heard the topic of the book, because this is not something I normally read. But, as it always happens, I enjoyed this new topic and found the story moving. I absolutely loved how women’s work, such as sewing and embroidery, was used as a hidden language and how communication played a role in resistance, because I know these things actually happened during WWII, so while this novel is a fiction, it is actually based on real-life practices. This is a great book for readers interested in historical fiction, parallel stories, women’s stories and fiction, and stories about private lives during times of war and violence. The novel is also a reminder that humans do not learn from history, and thus history repeats itself. However, courage, solidarity, and a desire to preserve identity do not wane with time and can be easily revived when under attack.
Thank you for reading!