This unique collection of essays offers a glimpse into life in and around Kharkiv during the first two years of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. A Kharkiv native, Vikoriia Grivina reflects on living in a city where days are full of poetry readings and gallery openings, while nights are saturated with air raids and explosions. The chronicle of everyday life is layered with inquiries into the urban history and mythology of the 20th-century Kharkiv, a look at the city's decolonial processes, new activist communities, and also the re-discovery of the 1920s literary movement known as the Ukrainian Executed Renaissance. The collection also comprises a fictional story that explores some of the darker, irrational fears and imaginations of urban dwellers during war.

Autorentext

Viktoriia Grivina holds two Master's degrees in English and German linguistics of Kharkiv National University, and in Cultural Studies via the Erasmus Mundus program at the universities of Tübingen, Bergamo, and St Andrews. Since 2021, she is working on her PhD thesis at St Andrews University, studying the war-time transformations in Kharkiv. In 2023, her book proposal, Potatoes and Other Hobbies, was shortlisted for the Nan Shepherd Prize in the UK.