The Shadow of Hope — Luiza Dobrzynska

 The action of The Shadow of Hope takes place partly in Ukraine and partly in Poland, several decades after the great European conflict. It almost completely destroyed the infrastructure of great states and brought the living standards of the surviving people back to the 19th century, if not worse. The main characters are Xenia, a girl raised by a worker in factory workshops, her foster brother Kola, a fugitive from a secret experimental laboratory, and Urunde, a crippled war veteran. They live in Smorodów, a small settlement next to a military garrison, and together with other inhabitants they fight to survive in a ruined world. When Colonel Demianiuk, the garrison commander, decides to send a secret mission to Poland, the team consists of Urunde, Xenia and Kola. Their mission is to transport to a hostile country samples taken from people dying of an unknown disease, and the notes of a garrison doctor. There are legends about the well-equipped research institute in Poland and the knowledge of Demianiuk only there can they develop an effective medicine.   The novel is the first volume of the planned series, entitled The Earth God's Forgotten.