Meet Sasha Vasilyuk, Author of Your Presence Is Mandatory

San Mateo County Libraries is thrilled to welcome Sasha Vasilyuk to discuss her debut novel, Your Presence is Mandatory. Sasha will be joined in conversation by Susanne Pari, author of In the Time of Our History.

This in-person event will take place at the Belmont Library on Tuesday, June 4 at 6:30 PM. The first 50 people in attendance will receive free giveaway books!

Your Presence Is Mandatory

Spanning between World War II and the Russia-Ukraine conflict and based on real events, Your Presence is Mandatory is a riveting debut novel about a Ukrainian Jewish WWII veteran with a lifelong secret, the repercussions for his family, and the grace they find in the course of their survival.

"An absorbing historical drama that spans from WWII to the current Russian-Ukraine conflict. Vasiluk is tender and caring with her characters and her setting. Fans of All The Light We Cannot See will find the perfect historical novel with this book." — Debutiful

"Full of devastating pathos and elucidation of how war and, especially, fascist and communist mindsets destroy one’s humanity, this timely novel is a robust addition to the growing body of literature chronicling the Ukrainian experience." — Booklist

Sasha Vasilyuk is a journalist and author of a debut novel, Your Presence is Mandatory, coming out April 23, 2024, from Bloomsbury in the U.S. and Canada, as well as in Italy, France, Germany, Finland in Brazil. Sasha grew up between Ukraine and Russia before immigrating to the U.S. at the age of 13. She has an MA in journalism from New York University and her nonfiction has been published in the New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, CNN, Time, San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Telegraph, KQED, Narrative, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of a Solas Award for Best Travel Writing, a North American Travel Journalists Association (NATJA) Award, and a Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) Fellowship from UC Berkeley. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and children. sashavasilyuk.com

Susanne Pari is a novelist, journalist, essayist, book reviewer, and author interviewer whose writing focuses on stories of displacement and belonging, of identity and assimilation, of trauma and resilience. Born in New Jersey to an Iranian father and an American mother, she grew up both in the United States and Iran until the 1979 Islamic Revolution forced her family into permanent exile. Her first novel, The Fortune Catcher, has been translated into six languages and her non-fiction writing has appeared in The New York Times Sunday Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, The Boston Globe, and National Public Radio. She divides her time between Northern California and New York. susannepari.com