Winner of the 2002 Anna Pidruchney Award For New Writers
On a visit to Ukraine to retrieve a family heirloom secretly buried by his grandfather during the Second World War, Yaroslaw, a Ukrainian-Canadian university student, stumbles into a world full of spies and secret organizations, peril and political intrigue.
His discovery of the hidden cache yields clues to the location of a fabled lost treasure-the greatest in all Europe. Working against time, Yaroslaw and a small band of accomplices struggle to uncover and save a nation’s heritage, operating in secret to prevent the corrupt leaders of the government and the Russians-from stealing it.
Yaroslaw’s Treasure is a thrilling suspense story set against the gripping drama of the Orange Revolution, the 2004 popular uprising that saw hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets in Ukraine to overthrow a corrupt government and reinforce democracy in a land long occupied by repressive and foreign regimes.
Rich with history, romance, politics, and danger, Yaroslaw’s Treasure superbly captures the wonders and horrors of Ukraine’s past, swirls through the treacherous currents of its present politics, all the while providing entertainment as a first-rate thriller.

Myroslav Petriw is a lifelong student of the history and politics of Ukraine, from which his parents emigrated after the Second World War. He was an observer during the 2004 elections in that country. He resides in Vancouver.

Myroslav Petriw's profile page

• Winner, Anna Pidruchney Award For New Writers

Think Hollywood action-adventure film Romancing the Stone, with a dash of a young 'Indiana Jones' thrown in. Except what takes Yaroslaw's Treasure beyond the action, lightness, and romance into greater depths are the political issues it raises. It makes sense of them by staging a living, historical context for the modern-day contentions.
Disputed origins and independence of Ukraine entwine with actions of the empire-addicted, KGB-controlled Russia to create a maze through which Yaroslaw quests for the treasure, a voyage as mysterious and dangerous as the deep caves of the mediaeval Ukrainian kingdom of Kyivan Rus' into which we are led.
This spectacular expedition tumbles us into the depths of those caves. We encounter Kyiv's heroic, but realistically and humorously rendered, defenders during the Mongol destruction of the city in 1240. We emerge at the dawning of the Orange Revolution 764 years later, when the heroes of the twenty-first century supplant those of the thirteenth. From beginning to end, a journey to treasure!

Myroslava Oleksiuk, film-maker, editor of ePOSHTA, Independent Ukrainian Internet News Magazine

Historically accurate and well researchedfrom the sacking of Kyiv, through the 1940s wartime episodes, into the Orange RevolutionPetriw displays a very good grasp of the political goings-on in Ukraine. This drama of delightful realism will be enjoyed by many.

Bohdan Onyschuk, Chair, Canada Ukraine Foundation

A riveting book!

Nash Holos radio show

An innocent Canadian meets Ukrainian reality in a fast-paced tale blending fact and fiction marvellously.

Nestor Gayowsky