In the week of the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, we want to highlight the work of one of the country’s most important contemporary writers: Serhiy Zhadan. Our librarian Jutta Braidt took the time to share her thoughts on two of his works.

Back in 2010, Serhiy Zhadan invented a psychedelic wonderland in Donbas reminiscent of Easy Rider, sort of a counter-imaginary to Yuri Andrukhovych’s Central European ›myth‹. His narrative in »Voroshilovgrad« is populated with steppe nomads, anarchists and jazz musicians searching for meaning in life amidst the seemingly endless freedom of the Ukrainian East, right on the borders of Europe.

A little more than a decade later, Zhadan no longer writes of that freedom (imagined as it is anyway), but of the fear and destruction falling from the sky. His »Sky Above Kharkiv« is the unsentimental diary by one of Ukraine’s greatest writers, documenting daily life and the struggle for survival in Russian-bombed Kharkiv.

Meanwhile, Serhiy Zhadan, who is also the lead singer of the fantastic ska band »Zhadan and the Dogs«, was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 2022 for his poetic and radical writings.

For now, he has put aside his prize (metaphorically speaking), along with his microphone and pen, to defend his country against the Russian invasion. Let’s hope he survives this ongoing war, takes up his pen once more, and gives us new books and concerts!

These books, along with many others, are available at the ERSTE Foundation Library. At a time when history is unfolding before our eyes, reading the voices of those who live through it is more important than ever.