Camel from Kyzylkum is a memoir about the physical, emotional, and spiritual journey of immigrating from the Soviet Union in the late twentieth century. It touches on the themes of hope, struggle, family, and loss, while highlighting the compelling desire for people to focus on freedom and self-determination. Readers will gain a better understanding of how much work and risk people will endure reaching for a better life.
Travel from Ukraine to the Kyzylkum Desert of Uzbekistan, from the Soviet Union to Austria, then Italy, and eventually America, all while following the author’s journey to find her truth and future.
Born in Ukraine and going to school there, Lara Gelya went on for the next 20 years to the Kyzylkum Desert of the Republic of Uzbekistan, working at geological sites and expeditions of the Mining Industry. At that time Ukraine and Uzbekistan were parts of one country—the Soviet Union.
In 1989 Lara left the Soviet Union, lived in Austria and Italy before she, at last, found her way to the United States in 1990. Starting her life from ground zero again, and trying on so many hats, she was able to make a lengthy professional career that led to her eventual retirement on the shores of sunny Florida. Lara's debut book "Camel from Kyzylkum" is a poignant memoir about hope, struggles, loss, and finding the strength and inspiration to reach again and again for a better life.
In September of 2022, Lara became an award-winning author as her book, Camel from Kyzylkum, was awarded the Literary Titan Gold Book Award.
When she isn’t writing or making her videos and pictures, Lara spends most of her time reading, gardening, cooking, traveling the world, wandering through nature, or catching her favorite shows.
Adolf Hitler's secret bunker during the World War II in Vinnitsa, Ukraine called the Wehrwolf.
Book Excerpt
Camel from Kyzylkum
During the time of the Cold War between East and West, the Soviet Union was closed off to outsiders. When the country entered a period of political “thaw,” and the flow of tourists to the USSR resumed after the war, they were offered tours of Moscow and Leningrad. Other major attractions included Crimea and Volga cruises. A small provincial city like Vinnitsa was not to be included in this tour list. What made Vinnitsa special and open to foreign tourists was one of Adolf Hitler’s secret bunkers, from which he and his generals monitored the Eastern Front during World War II. The bunker was built in 1941 and hidden in the pine forest. It was called the Wehrwolf, in reference to “wolf,” the translation of “Adolf,” Hitler’s first name. The bunker was built by Soviet prisoners of war, most of whom were shot dead and buried in a mass grave after construction was finished. There is an elaborate gilded monument to be found in the nearby village of Stryzhavka for the estimated 14,000 victims who were brutally shot.
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