Julian Evans

Julian Evans grew up on Australia's east coast. His first book, Transit of Venus, was described as "far and away the best book about the Pacific of our times”, and he is also the author of Semi-Invisible Man, an acclaimed biography of the writer and adventurer Norman Lewis.

Julian has written and presented radio and TV documentaries including BBC Radio 3’s 20-part series on the rise of the European novel, The Romantic Road, and the BBC Four film José Saramago: a Life of Resistance.He is a recipient of the Académie Française Prize for the Advancement of French Literature. He writes for English and French newspapers and magazines including the Guardian, Prospect, Times Literary Supplement and L’Atelier du Roman.

His latest book is Undefeatable: Odesa in Love and War. He discovered Odesa by accident more than twenty-five years ago and, having got married there in a monastery opposite the main train station, lived and started a family in the city. Later, when war started, he returned to Odesa and to Ukraine's frontline. A dramatic, intimate story of Ukrainian-Russian relations, Undefeatable is a haunting portrait of a singularly human, irrepressible city.

"Evans is a wonderful writer and observer, as elegant and gloriously freewheeling as the late Jonathan Raban. Each paragraph has a lapidary charm" – Luke Harding, Observer