Among a good number of new Ukrainian books that arrived in March are of course many about the Russian war against Ukraine taking place since 2014 which then intensified appallingly with the full-scale invasion launched in February 2022.
Many of these titles look at Ukraine before February 2022. One is the three-volume set Khronika viĭny 2014-2020 (Chronicle of the war 2014-2020). Across the set, the authors, Oleksandr Krasovyt︠s︡ʹkyĭ and Dar’i︠a︡ Bura,cover: the Maidan events to the Battle of Ilovaĭsk (v. 1), from the first Minsk Protocol to Minsk II (v. 2), and the following 5 years of hybrid war (v. 3). We plan to buy the English translation of the set as ebooks.
Another book looks at the recent history of a city before the 2022 invasion and its occupation by Russia since June that year. Si︠e︡verodonet︠s︡ʹk by Svitlana Oslavʹska – she uses a mixture of the Ukrainophone Si︠e︡vi︠e︡rodonet︠s︡ʹk and the Russophone Severodonet︠s︡k – contains “reports from the past” (the book’s subtitle) which include the May-July 2014 occupation of the city by Russia-backed forces.
Oksana Pukhonsʹka’s Poza mez︠h︡amy boi︠u︡ : dyskurs viĭny v suchasniĭ literaturi (Beyond conflict : the discourse of war in modern literature) studies the impact of both the pre-2022 Russo-Ukrainian war and the Balkan wars on literature and particularly on younger writers in conflict zones.
The other two books we focus on today are the two which look specifically at the 2022- full-scale invasion. Chuz︠h︡a-svoi︠a︡-ridna (Someone else’s-one’s own-native) contains short stories by Iryna Feofanova about women’s experience of the full-scale Russian invasion.
Viĭna 2022 (War 2022; picture at the top of the post) is a 437-page compilation of diaries, essays, and poems written in response to the Russian invasion. Its editor is Volodymyr Rafi︠e︡i︠e︡nko, a noted writer who previously wrote in Russian and then deliberately moved to writing in Ukrainian in response to the Russo-Ukrainian war from 2014. The book brings together many of Ukrainian’s leading writers. Here is the full list: Viktorii︠a︡ Amelina, Sofii︠a︡ Andrukhovych, I︠U︡riĭ Andrukhovych, Kateryna Babkina, Maksym Bespalov, I︠U︡riĭ Vynnychuk, Pavlo Vyshebaba, Iryna Vikyrchak, Larysa Denysenko, Li︠u︡bko Deresh, Anatoliĭ Dnistrovyĭ, Serhiĭ Z︠H︡adan, Olesʹ Ilʹchenko, I︠U︡lii︠a︡ Ili︠u︡kha, Oleksandr Irvanet︠s︡ʹ, Pavlo Kazarin, Kateryna Kalytko, Ii︠a︡ Kiva, Pavlo Korobchuk, Lina Kostenko, Oleh Kot︠s︡arev, Halyna Kruk, Anastasii︠a︡ Levkova, Andriĭ Li︠u︡bka, Vasylʹ Makhno, Oleksandr Mykhed, Kateryna Mikhalit︠s︡yna, I︠U︡lii︠a︡ Musakovsʹka, Olena Pavlova, Volodymyr Rafi︠e︡i︠e︡nko, Bohdana Romant︠s︡ova, Mar’i︠a︡na Savka, Iryna Slavinsʹka, Ostap Slyvynsʹkyĭ, Olena Stepanenko, Ksenii︠a︡ Kharchenko, Iryna T︠S︡ilyk, Artem Chapaĭ, Artem Chekh, Hasʹka Shyi︠a︡n, Iryna Shuvalova, Petro I︠A︡t︠s︡enko.
Mel Bach
Languages across Borders 