’Like Light in the Darkness’ – New German translations of Ukrainian literature + Books on Ukraine from German publishers

Karl Schlögel has travelled all over Ukraine down the years. His essays on the country paint a fascinating portrait of...

Karl Schlögel has travelled all over Ukraine down the years. His essays on the country paint a fascinating portrait of places such as Donetsk, Odessa, Kyiv, Kharkiv and Mariupol: once-flourishing cities whose names we now associate with the horrors of Putin’s invasion. These cities represent a distinctive culture and an open, diverse world that the West has ignored for far too long – and which today is imperilled like never before. The new and revised edition of Schlögel’s book, originally published in German in 2015, includes an extended essay on the war in Ukraine.

‘It was a spring day. Spots of sunshine played on the sides of houses and the white walls of St...

‘It was a spring day. Spots of sunshine played on the sides of houses and the white walls of St Sophia Cathedral.’ Since the start of the Russia–Ukraine war, artist and author Yevgenia Belorusets has been keeping a diary of events in Kyiv. She talks about her parents, the air raid shelters, the things she sees in the media and on the streets. Some are terrifying, but others are familiar and mundane, because everyday life goes on even in the most horrific of circumstances. In her writing and photography, Belorusets rejects the ubiquitous language of war. She opposes belligerent rhetoric with loving attentiveness, polarisation with human kindness.

A voyage of discovery through contemporary Ukrainian literature. Over 40 sharply written reviews by the critic Tetjana Trofymenko chart the...

A voyage of discovery through contemporary Ukrainian literature. Over 40 sharply written reviews by the critic Tetjana Trofymenko chart the varied literary output of Ukraine between 2007 and 2017. She also takes a humorous look at the Ukrainian book market in all its diversity, documenting both the highs and the lows.

‘War changes the meaning of words,’ explains the author of this dictionary of war. Each entry is a fragment of...

‘War changes the meaning of words,’ explains the author of this dictionary of war. Each entry is a fragment of a monologue ‘that I’ve heard or will hear one day in these difficult times’. Ostap Slyvynsky initially published these fragments online, and there are now print editions in Ukrainian, German, Polish, Romanian, Czech and Georgian.

What kind of letter would you write to people who live in peace and freedom and know nothing of day-to-day...

What kind of letter would you write to people who live in peace and freedom and know nothing of day-to-day life in war? Thirty-eight women aged 10 to 72 responded to this question by writing letters. Strong, powerful, succinct, uncompromising, filled with pain, they have been published in this book. The authors were photographed by three Ukrainian women. And the good news is: they’re all still alive. With an afterword by Nobel Peace laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk.