A devastating story of the struggle of civilians caught up in the
conflict in eastern Ukraine
Chosen as one of "Six Books to Read for Context on Ukraine" by the
New York Times
Selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the "20 Best Books of
2021"
"Powerful . . . For those who want a glimpse of what life will be like
in Ukraine for years to come, The Orphanage offers a frightening
glimpse."--Bill Marx, Arts Fuse
If every war needs its master chronicler, Ukraine has Serhiy Zhadan, one
of Europe's most promising novelists. Recalling the brutal landscape of
The Road and the wartime storytelling of A Farewell to Arms, The
Orphanage is a searing novel that excavates the human collateral damage
wrought by the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine. When hostile
soldiers invade a neighboring city, Pasha, a thirty-five-year-old
Ukrainian language teacher, sets out for the orphanage where his nephew
Sasha lives, now in occupied territory. Venturing into combat zones,
traversing shifting borders, and forging uneasy alliances along the way,
Pasha realizes where his true loyalties lie in an increasingly desperate
fight to rescue Sasha and bring him home.
Written with a raw intensity, this is a deeply personal account of
violence that will be remembered as the definitive novel of the war in
Ukraine.
