The latest addition to my website is Yuriy Vynnychuk‘s Танґо смерті (Tango of Death). This is a very complex novel, set mainly in Lviv. It is told in alternating chapters. The first set tells the story of four boys/men whose fathers were killedby the Russian force of Grigory Kotovsky, a professional bandit and vicious thug. … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Theodore Odrach‘s Вошадь (Wave of Terror). Odrach fled Ukraine and moved to Canada where he wrote this book, his only novel translated into English. it is set in his native Pinsk Marshes and the town of Pinsk. The book is set in 1939. The area had been under … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Valerian Pidmohylny‘s Місто (The City). This is an appropriate work to start off my Ukrainian reading marathon, in the light of current events, as Pidmohylny was murdered, along with about a thousand other Ukrainians, by the Russians. This book tells the story of Stepan, who comes from the … Read more
Every year at about this time I focus on books from just one country. Last year I had a country in mind and then we decided to go to Norway so I switched to Norway. Soon after starting the Norway read, Putin started his nasty illegal invasion of Ukraine so I had no doubt that … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Markiyan Kamysh‘s Оформляндія або прогулянка в Зону (Stalking the Atomic City). Markiyan Kamysh is a stalker, which means he enters Chernobyl illegally and wanders round exploring, regardless of the dangers of radiation, wild animals, snow drifts and the police. He has faced all four and survived. Why does … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Eugene Vodolazkin‘s Брисбен (Brisbane). The story is told in alternating chapters, the first telling of the early life of our hero Gleb Yanovsky, till he becomes famous as a musician, and the second from, 2012 when three key events change his life. He is born and bred in … Read more
Ukrainian literature did not start with the breakup of the Soviet Union though novelists writing in Ukrainian certainly came to the fore post-the Soviet Union. However before looking at the 20th-21st century Ukrainian authors, I would like to mention several Ukrainian novelists that we tend to know as Russian novelists, because they wrote in Russian … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Andrey Kurkov‘s Серые пчелы (Grey Bees). This a superb novel from Kurkov about a beekeeper, Sergeyich, who lives in a small village in the grey zone on the Ukrainian-Russian border. Post-2014, after the Russian occupation of Crimea, most people have moved away and there are only two people … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Andrey Kurkov‘s Смерть постороннего (Death and the Penguin). Yes, it is about a penguin but the penguin is both Viktor’s quirky pet but also a symbol for someone struggling to cope in an alien environment. Viktor is a writer who gets a job writing obituaries in advance of … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Serhiy Zhadan‘s Ворошиловград (Voroshilovgrad). This novel is set in Eastern Ukraine but not in Voroshilovgrad which isn’t called Voroshilovgrad any more. Our hero Herman, working in Kharkiv, is summoned to the small town of his birth not far from the Russian border, when his brother, who runs a … Read more