The third volume of Kurkov’s critically acclaimed, intimate and deeply moving war diaries: a poignant, personal account of life under siege in Ukraine—rich with humanity, dark humor, and unforgettable resilience amidst devastation.
“Clever, passionate” —The Times
“The pieces are flawlessly structured; the tone is devoid of self-pity … Yet saturating the book is a note of savage black comedy, the farce of a world made weird by unimaginable violence” —Spectator
“Uplifting and utterly defiant” —Daily Express
“No-one with the slightest interest in this war, or the nation on which it is being waged, should fail to read Andrey Kurkov” —Daily Mail
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Andrey Kurkov’s war diaries continue – a searing, deeply human portrait of a nation reshaped by war.
In this third volume of Andrey Kurkov’s war diaries, Ukraine’s greatest living writer chronicles the third year of the full-scale invasion from his home in Kyiv and from journeys all over the country—capturing moments of horror, resilience, absurdity and grace with unmatched clarity.
Children on a contested border wear hooded bulletproof vests to school; soldiers write haiku; professional clowns go to war; and the mother of a young soldier, killed in battle, uses his compensation money to create a rehabilitation center for veterans. Roses bloom across Ukraine in quiet tribute to a florist and soldier killed in Avdiivka, remembered by those who once bought his flowers.
The Dnipro River seems to slow when the first missiles fall, as though nature itself had paused in shock. In Pokrovsk, 7,500 residents refuse to leave a city that no longer exists—their homes obliterated but their will unbroken. A general’s seventeen-year-old pet toad becomes an iconic symbol of defiance. And buried beneath a cherry tree, a murdered writer’s final diary is recovered, a haunting echo of a silenced voice.
From the home front to the trenches, Kurkov captures the rhythms of survival—the quiet rituals, unlikely joys, unexpected humor and appalling costs—in an intimate and deeply moving record of national endurance. Three Years on Fire is a luminous act of remembrance, rich with unforgettable detail and human spirit, from a writer whose voice stands witness to everything Ukraine has lost—and everything it refuses to give up.
From the international bestselling author of The Stolen Heart, Death and the Penguin and The Grey Bees
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Praise for Andrey Kurkov’s war diaries:
“Andrey Kurkov [is] one of the most articulate ambassadors to the West for the situation in his homeland.” —Sam Leith, Spectator
“Immediate and important … From the grim incredulity at Russians massing on the border to the displacement of millions of people, this is an insider's account of how an ordinary life became extraordinary. It is also about survival, hope and humanity.” —Helen Davies, The Times
“Ukraine’s greatest novelist is fighting for his country,” —Giles Harvey, New York Times
“The author's on-the-ground account is packed with surprising details about the human effects of the Russian assault ... His voice is genial but also impassioned, never more so than when deploring Putin's efforts to erase Ukrainian culture and history. Ukraine, he says, ‘will either be free, independent and European, or it will not exist at all’. That's why the war has to be fought, with no concession of territory. And he remains quietly hopeful that it will be won,” —Blake Morrison, Guardian
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.
