Review by Choice Review
This war memoir follows Maidukov, a well-known Ukrainian writer who, together with his wife, daughter, and granddaughter, decided to leave Kyiv for Poland after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Despite his Russian-speaking background and Putin-supporting parents, Maidukov went into exile, relying on strangers' kindness while recording observations on the war underway in his home country. With his laptop, his "most valuable possession," he chronicled daily experiences, reflections on Ukraine's defiant response to an unprovoked war, and the evolving perception of President Volodymyr Zelensky as a hero. Returning to Kyiv after half a year, he witnessed the war's toll on Ukraine but also the resilience and enduring spirit of Ukraine's culture and the strength of its national identity. Maidukov's book is a firsthand account of the psychological and physical strain he and his family have endured as they strive to survive in a high-rise building without electricity, water, or heat and as they struggle to overcome shortages of all kinds, always hoping for a better future. This is an emotional glimpse into the disrupted lives of many Ukrainians at home and displaced abroad. The index offers quick access to people, places, institutions, and events covered throughout the narrative. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers through faculty. --Hermina G.B. Anghelescu, Wayne State University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
An affecting work from a Ukrainian writer originally from Donetsk who fled to Kyiv and reoriented his life. Maidukov, a well-known writer in Ukraine, was 66 when the Russians invaded in February 2022, living with his wife, Luba, and grown children in Kyiv. Eight years before, he and his wife were living in Donetsk. After the fracture with Russia and the Maidan revolution of 2014, the author took a cue from his son, Sergiy, to leave the "rotten" ways of Donetsk in July 2014 and move to Kyiv with Luba, thus becoming thoroughly Ukrainian despite their Russian-language family roots. Maidukov describes his break with his elderly parents, who were susceptible to Putin's propaganda about Ukraine. When the invasion occurred, the couple headed west to flee to Poland. He and Luba, along with two granddaughters, lived in hotels in various Polish towns, relying on the kindness of strangers. As the Ukrainian military battled the Russians over the course of the year, Maidukov recorded his observations, and they eventually returned to Kyiv, a disorderly, war-ravaged landscape, but essentially free. "In Ukraine, even bushes and trees looked different," writes the author. "Unshorn and unkempt, they grew up disorderly and freely. Indeed, it was symbolic of the very nature of Ukraine--freedom-seeking, desiring, defiant, willful, hard to grind or polish….Russia failed to destroy the Ukrainian language and erase the national identity." As a narrator, the author is engaging and honest, and he openly shares his fears, hopes for publication, and visions for Ukraine's future. He chronicles how the public came, somewhat reluctantly, to regard President Volodymyr Zelensky as a hero, and how the war has taken an enormous toll on the physical and mental health of both the author and his wife. A moving look at a deeply riven Russian-Ukrainian family and how they rejected Russian aggression. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
