Prose by Lana M. Rochel

These are contemporary short stories that take you from the early 1990s to the present day. The title of one of the stories became the title of the book itself. Dance with Me invites you to follow the characters' stories in the rhythm of the Waltz, Tango, and boogie-woogie. With an adventurous summer love story of a medical student and a linguist girl from Kyiv, you move to a Christmas story of students trying to solve a mystical puzzle. Years later, the characters have a happy family. One night the woman has a dream about a beautiful lake in Canada, will it come true? Soon, the narrative gets dramatic, blunt, and slightly political at times, with the truth revealed in private correspondence. With unexpected twists, you run a gamut of emotions from thrill and sadness to hope and joy. Tracing the same characters at different stages of their lives makes the collection unique in its storytelling. You see new people appear and impact the protagonist's life. Some of them stay, others go, and so is life. Written in English, the book tells ten extraordinary stories from the ordinary life of Ukrainians before russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Several hyperlinks are included for factuality and readers' interest.