IN FROM UKRAINE: ANDREY KURKOV & KELLY FALCONER
One of Ukraine’s most prominent novelist and independent thinker, Andrey Kurkov, will join us in London to describe how his world and that of his fellow citizens has been turned upside down when the Russian forces invaded his sovereign country on February 24th.
Please buy and read his books and come to show your support!
Kurkov has long been bringing wider attention to Russian aggression in Ukraine. His latest book, Grey Bees is as timely as was the author’s Ukraine Diaries in 2014. It treats the unfolding crisis and ensuing population displacements with creativity and signature humour. The protagonist, Sergei Sergeyich, is an avid beekeeper from Donbas in eastern Ukraine. He lives in the ‘grey zone’, the strip of no man’s land between the warring sides. For his bees to collect pollen in peace, he must move them. This simple act introduces him to combatants and civilians on both sides of the battle lines thus revealing cultural contexts and subtleties.
Kurkov writes in Russian and is the author of 19 novels, The Milkman in the Night, The Bickford Fuse and including the bestselling Death and the Penguin.