Grisha: A Soviet Cat (2026)

Grisha: A Soviet Cat, Christina’s sixth children’s book, is the first of a five-book series (The Grisha Tales) about the adventures of a rescue cat in the 1980s Soviet Union. In this first story, Maria, a factory worker, defies her boss to save a young kitten, but getting him home proves a bit of a challenge for her and her little daughter, Lena.

Christina first drafted the Grisha tales in the early Aughts when she was starting to translate Maria Shelyakhovskaya’s memoir, Being Grounded in Love, into English. The stories were inspired both by Christina’s historical research and by real cats (there was a real Grisha!) and people whom Christina met in Ukraine, Russia, and at home in the US. Ultimately, Christina hopes that the Grisha series will both pique interest in the history of Eastern Europe (about which many Westerners remain woefully uninterested and uninformed) and show that people can always choose to act compassionately despite challenging circumstances.

Proceeds from the sales of the Grisha series are being donated to a charity in Kyiv, Ukraine, which cares for widows, orphans, and wounded Armed Forces of Ukraine service members.

In the United States, copies of Grisha: A Soviet Cat are available here. If you’d like to support local businesses in the CSRA and further afield, you can shop in person in Augusta, GA, at Surrey Center Pharmacy, The Book Tavern, Sacred Heart Cultural Center Gift Shop, Augusta Canal Discovery Center Gift Shop, and the Morris Museum Shop; in North Augusta, SC, at the Arts & Heritage Center; in Dublin, GA, at The Olive Branch; in Thomson, GA, at MariBeth's Books; and in Greensboro, GA, at Genuine Georgia—please call ahead or message them to make sure it’s in stock, as the books tend to sell quickly!