Olia Hercules wasn't in Ukraine when Russia invaded that country and war broke out. She was living in relative safety far from the conflict center. But that doesn't protect your core when your family and home are at risk. Instead, she was catapulted into a cascade of emotions. Each of us responds differently to the panic and terror of these situations. For Olia, who has spent her adult life as a food writer and recipe developer in the UK, her response was to sit down and write her family story. The result is Strong Roots: A Memoir of Food, Family and Ukraine . As she says in her prologue, you can call it "a complicated grief response, if you like." Olia Hercules: My hometown is called Kakhovka , and it's in the south of Ukraine. If you look on the map, you will see Crimea quite prominent

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