This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.
Murray Pura was born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, just north of the Dakotas and Minnesota. His first novel was released in Toronto in 1988 and was a finalist for the Dartmouth Book Award. Since that time, he has published more than a dozen novels, two collections of short stories, and several nonfiction titles including the Zondervan books Rooted and Streams and the Baker devotional Majestic & Wild. He has been a finalist for several awards in the US and Canada, including the $25,000 Kobzar Literary Award for the novel Zo, and in 2012 won the Word Award of Toronto for Best Historical Novel for The White Birds of Morning. Murray lives and writes in southwestern New Mexico and is currently published by Barbour, Baker, Harper One, Harper Collins and Harvest House as well as several other firms – he works with publishers in Canada, America, the UK, and Holland. His releases include the bestsellers: Ashton Park, The Wings of Morning, The Face of Heaven, The Rose of Lancaster County, A Road Called Love, The Painted Sky, An Amish Family Christmas and London Dawn. His diverse writing spans many genres including historical fiction, contemporary fiction, literary fiction, romance, adventure, western, suspense, fantasy, Amish, and inspirational. Most of his work is available in ebook format for Kindle, Kobo, Nook, Apple and Google Play as well as in paperback.
Reviewed by Erin Nicole Cochran for Readers' Favorite
In Murray Pura's poetry collection, Petals: Poems of a War in Ukraine, you are immersed in a part of life that many people in this world are not privy to. War. This collection pulls together snapshots of childhood memories and the recalling of war, and the heartbreak of both at times. It will break you out of your comfort zone, that is a fact. It will open your eyes to a war of which many of us have no inkling. You will be faced with that war, and with recollections of childhoods that may or may not be similar to your own.
Murray Pura's first poem draws you in, giving you a sense of a history that might not be known, but it makes you traipse through the unknown in a way that is captivating. There is a heartbeat in these poems that rhyme could not produce, it pulls you in with poetic words. My favorite poem, “she traced my body on paper”, entranced me. I can picture it in some ways and can’t in others, it’s a back and forth kind of unsettling emotion that I find to be perfect. If there were any confusion to be had, the poem “the man from Paris” again is a favorite; however, its structure made it difficult for me to read easily, and there were times when I didn’t know who was speaking. Other than that, Petals: Poems of a War in Ukraine by Murray Pura is one of the best collections of poetry that I have come across in some time. I highly recommend it.
