65 pages • 2 hours read
Mark SullivanThe Last Green Valley
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1: “The Long Trek”
Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary
In March 1944, in the throes of World War II, Adeline Martel, her husband Emil, and their two young sons, six-year-old Waldemar (Walt) and four-year-old Wilhelm (Will), pack a covered wagon in the Romanian town of Friedenstal along the border of Ukraine. As they pack, German tanks drive by their house, trailed by trucks full of wounded German soldiers.
Three days prior, a German SS officer promised the Martel family protection if they moved west with the German army. Adeline voices concern about traveling alongside Nazis, but Emil argues that staying will ensure their continued suffering under Joseph Stalin’s Communist regime. Emil views the German officer’s promise as a starting point for escaping the war altogether.
Adeline’s mother and sister, Lydia and Malia Losing, arrive at the house. Malia suffered brain damage at 15 when a mule kicked her, leaving her, the narrator says, “childlike in some ways and wiser than most in others” (9). The Martels and Losings join the crowd of refugees leaving Friedenstal. As they ride through the village, Adeline remembers happy moments from her childhood. When Will asks what the west will look like, Adeline tells him they are going to a “beautiful green valley” (12).
Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary
The book flashes back to November 1929 as 14-year-old Adeline finishes cleaning dishes in the school kitchen in Schoenfeld, Ukraine. As she walks home, she reflects on the harsh conditions her family has endured under Stalin’s rule. Adeline’s family is descended from ethnic Germans, known as Volksdeutsche, who came to Ukraine in the 18th century when the Russian government offered farmland in exchange for a share of their wheat harvests. The Volksdeutsche did not fully assimilate into Russian culture. After the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, many of the Volksdeutsche were banished from their farms. Adeline’s family, the Losings, is one of the few remaining German families in Schoenfeld due to her father’s farming skills.
As Adeline walks home, she finds the bodies of two dogs with their throats slit. Adeline’s parents are shaken when she tells them. Her parents know that Stalin’s secret police, the OGPU, kill dogs so their barking does not alert the villagers to their presence. That night, the OGPU arrest Adeline’s father, Karl Losing, on charges of being a kulak, or someone who steals from the state. Karl denies stealing, but the OGPU searches the house and finds an extra bag of grain he kept for his family. The police tell Lydia that Karl will be sent to a Siberian prison.
Part 1, Chapter 3 Summary
As the Martels and Losings leave Friedenstal in March 1944, Adeline worries about her mother, who became one of the many “widows of Stalin” (24). When Lydia and her children were forcefully removed from their farm in 1930, she left a letter behind telling Karl where they went in the hope that he might one day find them. Since then, many Volksdeutsche men have been taken away from their families; Adeline’s brother, Wilhelm, and Emil’s brother, Reinhold, were drafted into the armed forces of Nazi Germany, known as the Wehrmacht, in 1941.
As they leave Friedenstal, Emil warns Adeline that a snowstorm is approaching; the storm becomes so intense that Emil cannot keep their wagon on the road. After the storm dies down, they attempt to find the road again, only to realize they are caught between German and Soviet tanks firing at one another. Emil frantically directs their horses through the battlefield and back onto the road.
Part 1, Chapter 4 Summary
The Martels’ wagon catches up to the caravan. Progress is slow, and Emil feels frustrated that he must abide by the Nazi’s orders. He reminds himself that staying in Friedenstal would have been worse. The trek is paused for the night, and Emil pulls their wagon next to one driven by his family, including his parents, Johann and Karoline Martel, and his 21-year-old sister, Theresa (Rese).
Karoline begrudgingly allows Adeline, Emil, Lydia, and Malia to share her fire for cooking. She expresses worry over her husband; Johann was sent to Siberia just like Adeline’s father and returned sick. Despite Malia and Rese’s attempts to lighten the mood, Karoline remains angry and berates Malia for making light of their situation. The group retires to their wagons to sleep.
Part 1, Chapter 5 Summary
The book flashes back to March 1933 in Birsula, Ukraine, where Emil is near death from starvation. After his family was removed from their farm in Friedenstal in 1930, Johann, Karoline, and Rese went to Pervomaisk while Emil moved to Birsula. In 1932, Stalin set out to destroy opposition to Soviet rule in Ukraine by starving the population.
Emil passes by a railyard where Russian soldiers are guarding a pile of wheat taken from the German farmers and left to rot in the sun. As he stares at the wheat, Emil questions how a just or benevolent God could allow so much suffering.
Emil walks to the outskirts of Birsula to forage for food in the creek bottoms but realizes he is too weak to make the short journey. Instead, he will steal from one of the town’s wealthy families who have access to food because they are allied with Stalin. Emil chooses the house of a party leader and sees a maid leave one of the house’s garbage cans in the alley. When he attempts to reach it, he is confronted by another starving man. Emil attacks the man and then takes the garbage can with him.
Part 1, Chapter 6 Summary
In 1944, the Martel family wakes to the sound of cannon fire. A Nazi soldier announces that the trek will head for the bridges of Dubossary. Adeline notices Emil’s defeated demeanor; she notes that he has not been himself since they moved to Friedenstal in 1941. In September 1941, Emil traveled to Dubossary to gather supplies for their new house and was held by German forces for over a day. Emil refuses to talk about what happened to him.
As the trek continues, Emil recognizes a German officer directing traffic as Major Haussmann, who he met when he was held in Dubossary in 1941. Although Haussmann does not recognize him, Emil becomes so anxious that he vomits. Moments later, Soviet planes begin shelling the city near the caravan. The Martels cross the bridge and ride into Moldova, escaping the blasts. Adeline tries to comfort Walt and Will by explaining that God will protect them, but Emil tells her not to lie to them.
Part 1, Chapter 7 Summary
The Martels pass by the wreckage created by the Soviet bombs. Adeline tells Walt and Will not to look at the dead bodies, but Emil argues that they need to look so they understand the true horrors of war.
That night, Adeline dreams of the first time she met Emil. After her family was removed from their home, she was sent to work on a farm in Birsula. The work was grueling, and she almost died of pneumonia, but she eventually secured a job as a cook for an elderly Jewish woman named Mrs. Kantor. One day in 1933, Adeline managed to buy a chicken to cook for Mrs. Kantor and her family, but she could not locate enough firewood. As Adeline left Mrs. Kantor’s house to search for wood, she knocked a book onto the kitchen floor; it opened to a picture of a “beautiful green valley surrounded by snow-peaked mountains with a river winding through it” (70). Adeline put the book back and noticed a young man carrying a bundle of firewood. She bought some, and the young man introduced himself as Emil Martel.
Part 1 Analysis
Part 1 of The Last Green Valley introduces the German farming community in Ukraine. In the 18th century, Germans were offered farmland and tax exemptions in exchange for growing wheat to feed Russia. Those who took up residence in Ukraine were known as Volksdeutsche, or ethnic Germans who do not hold German citizenship.
The majority of Volksdeutsche never assimilated into Russian culture. They tried to replicate their home villages, the narrator says, “erecting churches to perpetuate their Lutheran faith and schools to educate their children and keep their native tongue alive” (16). Despite these efforts, the Volksdeutsche were physically isolated from Germany. By the early decades of the 20th century, they were “almost completely disconnected from their roots” (16). Although the Volksdeutsche communities initially thrived in Ukraine, the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and Joseph Stalin’s rise to power in the early 1920s resulted in the Soviet government’s targeting of wealthy farmers.
By March 1944, the Volksdeutsche in Ukraine existed in a cultural and political limbo, separated from their German roots but opposed to the Soviet regime. This limbo was further heightened by the dissolving of the German-Soviet non-aggression agreement in 1941.
This historical context sets the foundation for the novel’s theme of Moral Ambiguity and Compromise. Families like the Martels are forced to decide between remaining under Soviet rule or aligning themselves, even temporarily, with the Nazis. When the Nazis offer Volksdeutsche families protection if they retreat west with the Wehrmacht, Adeline expresses hesitation to Emil. Emil, however, claims it is the best option for their family in a bad situation: “We can stay and wait for the bear that we know will kill us […] Or we can run with the wolves that will protect us until we can make our escape” (7).
The Last Green Valley also explores gendered experiences with these hardships. After the Bolshevik Revolution, many Volksdeutsche men were sent to Siberian prisons, including Adeline and Emil’s fathers. The Volksdeutsche women were left to care for their families and maintain their households without knowing when or if their husbands would return. Although Emil’s father, Johann, returned from Siberia, Adeline’s father never did. Adeline’s mother becomes one of the many “widows of Stalin” and must grapple with the reality that the journey west means giving up the dream of seeing her husband again (24).
The characters in The Last Green Valley demonstrate drastically different methods of coping with the hardships they endure. Emil’s mother, Karoline, harbors bitterness for the suffering she endured when Johann was taken to Siberia and admonishes those around her for maintaining any sense of optimism. Such an attitude is contrasted by characters such as Rese and Malia, who attempt to make light of their situation, often provoking Karoline’s fury.
The way that the characters cope with their situations demonstrates The Importance of Faith. As Volksdeutsche, Emil and Adeline were both raised Lutheran; Adeline has maintained her faith, while Emil has not. Throughout the beginning of their journey west, Adeline reassures their sons, Walt and Will, that God will watch over them. In contrast, Emil argues that the boys need to learn the truth that “God is not going to be there for them at every turn” (64). According to Emil, even if God exists, he does not listen to prayers. Emil believes that people must fend for themselves without expecting divine intervention to save them.
