The latest addition to my website is Taras Prokhasko‘s НепрОсті (The Unsimple). This is a post-modern, magic realism novel set in the Carpathians. It is set primarily in the fairly remote, fictitious town of Ialivets. The town had been created by Franzysk, usually known as Franz, in 1888. He had had married Anna and they … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Zinaida Tulub‘s В степу безкраїм за Уралом (The Exile). This is novelised biography of the first exile of Ukraine’s national poet Taras Shevchenko. Shevchenko had written a poem which was fairly flattering about the Tsar but far less so about his wife. The Tsar was furious and Shevchenko … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Yuri Andrukhovych‘s Московіада (The Moscoviad. Our hero is a Ukrainian poet called Otto Wilhelmovych von F. He has a two-year stipend to write poetry in Moscow, where he is housed with writers from all over the Soviet Union (though,as the year is 1991, the Soviet Union has not … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Oksana Zabuzhko‘s Польові дослідження з українського сексу (Fieldwork In Ukrainian Sex). Zabuzhko opens this novel all guns blazing and rarely lets up. She has been in a relationship with a fellow Ukrainian but has now broken up with him and she has no hesitation in telling us why. … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Vasyl Shevchuk‘s Побратими, або Пригоди двох запорожців на суходолі, в морі та під водою (Blood Brothers). This novel is set in the seventeenth century and tells of the Zaporozhian Cossacks attempt to free themselves from the Poles as well as from the Tatars and Turks. Our hero is … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Mykhailo Kotsyubynsky‘s Тіні забутих предків (Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors). This is one of the great Ukrainian classics, using the Romeo and Juliet theme. The family of Ivan (the Romeo) is feuding with the family of Marichka (the Juliet). When a fight breaks out Ivan’s father is attacked and … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Igor Kaczurowsky‘s Шлях невідомого (Because Deserters Are Immortal). The book is set in Ukraine in late 1941 when the Germans are invading the Soviet Union. Our hero is Serhiy Remez who is not a keen supporter of the Soviet Union as most of his family has been murdered … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Andriy Lyubka‘s Карбід (Carbide). This is a very funny novel whose hero is the naive, drunken idealist Mykhailo ‘Tys’ Chvak who lives in the fictitious Ukrainian town of Vedmediv, close to the Hungarian border. Tys comes up with an idea of digging a tunnel between Vedmediv and Hungary … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Andrey Kurkov‘s Садовник из Очакова (The Gardener from Ochakov). Igor lives alone with his mother but he does not work. His mother takes in Stepan as a gardener and Igor is able to find out that Stepan had some connection with the town of Ochakov. The pair go … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Oleg Shynkarenko‘s Кагарлик (Kaharlyk). the book was originally on Facebook before being published as a book. It tells of the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine (written before the recent illegal invasion) and is set sometime (possibly seventy years) in the future. Ukraine is now substantially depopulated … Read more