Andrey Kurkov’s urgent, humane and unforgettable war diaries continue in a poignant, personal account of life under siege in Ukraine – rich with humanity, dark humour, and unforgettable glimpses of resilience amidst devastation.
‘A vivid, moving and sometimes funny account of the reality of life during Russia''s invasion’ Marc Bennetts, The Times
‘Uplifting and utterly defiant’ Matt Nixson, Daily Express
‘No one with the slightest interest in this war, or the nation on which it is being waged, should fail to read Andrey Kurkov’ Dominic Lawson, Daily Mail
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Andrey Kurkov’s war diaries continue: A profound and deeply personal chronicle of life under siege.
In this second volume of his acclaimed war diaries, Ukraine’s greatest living writer bears witness to a nation enduring the unendurable. From his home in Kyiv, Kurkov captures the surreal and the life-shattering: children learning algebra in metro stations turned bomb shelters, holidaymakers sunbathing on mined beaches, and farmers sowing fields shadowed by missile strikes.
On its eastern borders, Ukrainian citizens are put into “filtration camps”, en route to Russia … or to execution. To the north, Belarusian forces press refugees into service as mine detectors.
This is a lived account – rich with startling vignettes, dark humour and devastating detail – of a country adapting, resisting, surviving. A child downloads movies to a smartphone to watch during nightly power cuts. An elderly Japanese man feeds the hungry in Kharkiv. A soldier carefully rehomes a swarm of bees. A winemaker uses scrap wooden shell crates to package gift sets. A Ukrainian gunner inscribes messages on shells and rockets aimed for Russia: “For Bakhmut”, he writes. The family of a journalist killed in the Donbas sells their home to open a bookshop in his m
