Read for Ukraine

At a recent “Dialogues on War” event organised by PEN International, in a conversation between Andreiy Kurkov and Philippe Sands, Kurkov was asked what people could do to support Ukrainian writers. “Read their books”, was his reply.

Sands’ own brilliant East West Street illuminates Ukraine’s extraordinary role in European history and International Human Rights law. Part memoir, part family history, part legal analysis, the book reads like a thriller.

Here is a link to a list of recommended titles by Ukrainian and non-Ukrainian authors, put together by PEN International. The list was edited by Diana Delyurman, Iryna Rodina and Myroslava Mokhnatska.

And here’s a selection from that list, with additions from people who were on that call and later calls:

Applebaum, Anne Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine (History)

Hnatiuk, Ola Courage and Fear (History: Lviv during WWII)

Kurkov, Andreiy Grey Bees (Novel; currently on the Dublin Literature Award 2022 longlist)

Kurkov, Andreiy Jimi Hendrix Live in Lemberg (Lviv) (Novel)

Marynovych, Myroslav The Universe Behind Barbed Wire: Memoirs of a Ukrainian Soviet Dissident

Plokhy, Serhii The Gates of Europe (Historical study of Ukrainian identity and sovereignty)

Sands, Philippe East West Street (History, Memoir, Family History, Human Rights Law)

Shevchenko, Taras (Poetry)

Snyder, Timothy Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning (Non Fiction: History)

Zabuzhko, Oksana Selected Poems (Poetry)

Zabuzhko, Oksana  “One Hundred Years of Solitude, or the Importance of a Story”(Essay: https://agnionline.bu.edu/essay/one-hundred-years-of-solitude-or-the-importance-of-a-story/ )

Zhadan, Serhiy What We Live For, What We Die For: Selected Poems (poetry)