Ukraine 22

I am extremely grateful this collection found its way to me. I read it compulsively over two sittings while my decidedly war-free calendar called me back to it with its seductions (delusions) of normality. The extraordinary writers in this volume articulate the taste, the terror, and the dialect of war; they command their powers of description to face a shameless empire intent on annihilating them. You won’t find patriotic sentimentality here, but an exquisite unity of life and word against a barbaric invasion that is already shaping Europe’s future. Ukraine 22 is a remarkable and significant collection which ought to be read widely – Ellena SavageThis book thrums with the voices of everyday Ukrainians trying to live while the spectre of war looms blackly above them. Filled with heart-wrenching minute details, this book demands its readers consider a baby making air raid siren noises instead of speaking its first words, the quiet defiance in buying cinnamon buns during a war, and how do you choose which books to leave behind? As the country dances its “deadly tango”, Ukrainian writers offer us a slice of insight into what life is like when normal is destroyed – Hanan Issa

Since 2007 Mark Andryczyk has been teaching Ukrainian literature at Columbia University and administering the Ukrainian Studies Program at its Harriman Institute. He is author of the monograph ‘The Intellectual as Hero in 1990s Ukrainian Fiction’ (University of Toronto Press, 2012) - Ukrainian edition (Piramida, 2014) - and a translator of Ukrainian literature into English. He is editor and compiler of Writing From Ukraine- Fiction, Poetry and Essays since 1965 (Penguin, 2022).