Ten years on from the annexation of Crimea, two years on from Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian people continue to fight back. In the second volume of his war diaries, Andrey Kurkov gives a fresh perspective on a people for whom resistance and solidarity have become a matter of survival.
Our Daily War is a chronological record of the heterogeneous mix that comprises Ukrainian life and thought in the teeth of Russian aggression, from the constant stress of air raids, the deportation of citizens from the occupied regions and the whispers of governmental corruption to Christmas celebrations, crowdfunding and the recipe for a " trench candle" .
Kurkov's human' s-eye view on the war in Ukraine is by turns bitingly satirical, tragic, humorous and heartfelt. It is also, in the manner of Pepys, an invaluable insight into the history, politics and culture of Ukraine. Our Daily War is the ideal primer for anyone who would like to know what life is like in that country today.
Andrey Kurkov graduated from Kyiv Pedagogical Academy of Foreign Languages in 1983. Death and the Penguin, the first of his novels to be translated into English, as well as into more than thirty other languages, has been in print since its publication in 2001. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, he has published unrivalled reports from his country in newspapers and magazines all over the world. He has become, in the process, a crucial voice for the people of Ukraine.