Sarabande is a novel presented mostly through the rapid-fire interactions of the characters in one-on-one situations or in small groups. Most of the novel revolves around the male protagonist, the journalist Pavlo Dudnyk, who takes his schoolhood friend Sara Polonsky as his second wife.
Sara, who blossomed from an inconspicuous overweight adolescent into a vivacious woman, used to mock him in school with the nickname âUnderbuttâ for his bony derriere that always needed padding on the classroom chairs. When Pavlo marries Sara, he doesnât realize at first that heâs also married into her extended family, Saraâs band of Polonskys, with their myriad quirks and manifestations of peculiar behavior.
