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Books from Ukraine

"The Board of Trustees of the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade and the prize’s founder are outraged by Russia’s brutal attack on Ukraine. We appeal to the Russian people and their president to stop the deliberate destruction of peace and freedom in Europe. And we send words of solidarity to the people of Ukraine: you are part of an international community that supports human dignity, democratic participation, and equality for all. You have a right to peace!"

The Board of Trustees of the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, together with Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, Frankfurter Buchmesse, MVB, mediacampus frankfurt

Single title

werwolf-sutra

Werwolf Sutra

Yurii Andrukhovych, who for German readers represents a new, independent Ukraine, started out as a rebellious poet  in the 1980s....

Yurii Andrukhovych, who for German readers represents a new, independent Ukraine, started out as a rebellious poet  in the 1980s. The group he co-founded, BuBaBu (Burlesk-Balagan-Buffonada), was seen as a poetic awakening in the spirit of modernism. Even then it was an approach to poetry that, with its cheeky punchlines and deliberate taboo-breaking, set itself apart from state-protected Socialist Realism. His texts mix poetic playfulness with a cosmopolitan feel. They are narrative poems of a special kind, wishful and hard-boiled, thoughtful and spontaneous.

Andrukhovych, known for his charming and cheeky humour as a storyteller, is also a witty and virtuosic poet.

Publisher:
Topic:
Poetry
ISBN:
978-3-88423-329-0
Author:
Juri Andruchowytsch
Pages:
96
Format:
21,5x13,6cm
Price:
€ 17.80
haft

Haft / Detention

The Ukrainian film director and Maidan-activist, Oleg Senzov, spent 145 days on a hunger strike, during which time he kept...

The Ukrainian film director and Maidan-activist, Oleg Senzov, spent 145 days on a hunger strike, during which time he kept diaries and wrote short stories, His writing provides insights into everyday life in the Russian penal colony "Polar Bear", in Labytnangi Arctic Circle, where he was forced to serve his sentence up to his early release. Senzov describes the physical changes he experiences while declining the intake of food, the capricious weather in this inhospitable region, the things he reads, and his memories of the revolution on the Maidan in the winter of 2013-14, in which he was directly involved. He portrays fellow prisoners and sheds light on the mechanisms of a brutal and inhumane legal and detention system, in which the camp doctor is the only person Senzow can trust for support.

Publisher:
ISBN:
978-3-86391-292-5
Author:
Oleg Senzow
Pages:
432
Format:
20,2x14,5cm
Price:
€ 26.00
der-erzherzog-der-den-schwarzmarkt-regierte

Der Erzherzog, der den Schwarzmarkt regierte, Matrosen liebte und mein Großvater wurde / The Empress' First Investigation

Archduke Wilhelm suffers from arachnophobia and a fear of needles; he loves tattoos and men. He is passionately committed to...

Archduke Wilhelm suffers from arachnophobia and a fear of needles; he loves tattoos and men. He is passionately committed to the Ukrainians’ aspirations to independence – but the October Revolution ruins his plans to become King of Ukraine. There follow years in hiding as a spy, who gets his rich relations to fund his dissolute life in seedy Paris. According to the history books, Wilhelm's life ended in 1948, but Natalka Sniadanko resurrects him and lets him become a legend of L’viv’s black market!

The life of his granddaughter, Halyna, is likewise marked by upheaval. How does she find her own way, as a woman and as a Ukrainian of a new generation?

Publisher:
Topic:
Fiction
ISBN:
978-3-7099-3448-7
Author:
Natalka Sniadanko
Pages:
424
Format:
22,1x14,6cm
Price:
€ 25.90
vorwaerts-ihr-kampfschildkroeten

Vorwärts, ihr Kampfschildkröten! / Forward, Battle Turtles

Gedichte aus der Ukraine / Poems from Ukraine

A platform for six Ukrainian poets: the colourful, surreal verse of Emma Andijewska, who lives in exile in Germany; the...

A platform for six Ukrainian poets: the colourful, surreal verse of Emma Andijewska, who lives in exile in Germany; the gentle, subtle Natalka Bilozerkiwez; the potent natural-mysticism of Oleh Lysheha; the witty, rebellious Yurii Andrukhovych; Serhij Zhadan, who loves the poetic grotesque; and Andrij Bondar, poet of everyday life – the last two having grown up in Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Inter-linear versions and an afterword by Stefaniya Ptashnyk and Petro Rychlo.

Publisher:
Topic:
Poetry
ISBN:
978-3-88423-259-0
Author:
Hans Thill
Pages:
192
Format:
21,5x14,2cm
Price:
€ 19.90
rose-auslaender-leben-im-wort

Rose Ausländer - Leben im Wort / Rose Ausländer’s Life in Words

Who was Rose Ausländer (born 1901 in Austro-Hungarian Czernowitz; died 1988 in Düsseldorf)? What makes her so special as a...

Who was Rose Ausländer (born 1901 in Austro-Hungarian Czernowitz; died 1988 in Düsseldorf)? What makes her so special as a personality and as an author?

For Rose Ausländer, writing is existentially important; "a word, a constellation of words" are "questions of life". This special book recounts the life of the prominent Jewish-German author as a graphic novel – with easily understandable texts and many illustrations.

Publisher:
Topic:
Graphic novel
ISBN:
978-3-946046-27-1
Author:
Oxana Matiychuk
Illustrator:
Olena Staranchuk, Oleg Gryshchenko
Pages:
56
Format:
20,5x14,8cm
Price:
€ 16.00
internat

Internat / The Boarding School

In immensely forceful images, Serhij Zhadan shows how familiar surroundings become transformed into a frightening territory. A young teacher wants...

In immensely forceful images, Serhij Zhadan shows how familiar surroundings become transformed into a frightening territory. A young teacher wants to bring his 13-year-old nephew home from the boarding school on the other side of the city. The school, where his working sister has "parked" her son, has come under fire and is no longer safe. It  takes a whole day for him to cross this place where civilian life has collapsed. The way home becomes an ordeal. The two of them end up close to the fighting, though they can see no more than a milky fog in which yellow fires keep flaring. Machine guns rattle and mines explode more frequently than the day before. In the ruins they see paramilitary squads emerging, ownerless dogs, and apathetic people stumbling without orientation through an apocalyptic urban landscape.

Publisher:
Topic:
Fiction
ISBN:
978-3-518-42805-4
Author:
Serhij Zhadan
Pages:
300
Format:
21,6x13,1cm
Price:
€ 22.00
im-schatten-der-mohnbluete

Im Schatten der Mohnblüte / Tango of Death

A Ukrainian, a German, a Pole, a Jew. The four young friends are at home in the multicultural Lviv of...

A Ukrainian, a German, a Pole, a Jew. The four young friends are at home in the multicultural Lviv of the 1930s. It is a colourful place replete with magically bizarre characters – from the grandmother, passionate about her work as a professional mourner, to the ancient librarian who cannot die till her fiancé returns from the mysterious depths of the bookshelves. With the arrival of the Soviets and later the Nazis, the city becomes a sombre place. In the turmoil of war, a fateful melody leaves behind traces that lead up to the present day: the Tango of Death. In a mysterious way, it reawakens memories of an earlier life, making it possible for loved ones to find each other again – there, where the poppy dances.

Tango of Death is a moving story of friendship, ideals and resilience in the face of the greatest cruelty. It shows that where there are shadows, there is also always light.

Publisher:
Topic:
Fiction
ISBN:
978-3-7099-7145-1
Author:
Jurij Wynnytschuk
Pages:
456
Format:
20,8x13,4cm
Price:
€ 22.90
blauwal-der-erinnerung

Blauwal der Erinnerung / Blue Whale of Memory

A novel about the forgotten Ukrainian folk hero Vyacheslav Lypynskyi, whose life is artfully intertwined with that of the first-person...

A novel about the forgotten Ukrainian folk hero Vyacheslav Lypynskyi, whose life is artfully intertwined with that of the first-person narrator. The latter searches for clues in Lypynskyi’s past to help her cope better with her own present. An impressively literary novel that shows what it means if a person’s identity consists of fear, obedience and forgetting.

Publisher:
Topic:
Fiction
ISBN:
978-3-462-05220-6
Author:
Tanja Maljartschuk
Pages:
288
Format:
20,6x13,3 cm
Price:
€ 22.00
graue-bienen

Graue Bienen / Grey Bees

A village near Donetsk, near the front line between the Ukrainian army and the pro-Russian separatists. The war has been...

A village near Donetsk, near the front line between the Ukrainian army and the pro-Russian separatists. The war has been raging for three years and the local people have left the village. Only the beekeeper Sergey chose to stay – because if everyone leaves, no one will return. Apart from him, there is just his "childhood enemy" Pashka. Their hardship now brings them together. In the third spring, Sergey decides to take his bees away from the war zone. They need to fly out in peace to gather their nectar. On his journey Sergey makes friends, but he also encounters mistrust and resentment. Even in the paradise of Crimea he does not really feel welcome. And when even his bees seem to start changing, he decides to return to his village.

Publisher:
Topic:
Fiction
ISBN:
978-3-257-07082-8
Author:
Andrej Kurkow
Pages:
448
Format:
17,7x11,2cm
Price:
€ 13.00
museum-der-vergessenen-geheimnisse

Museum der vergessenen Geheimnisse / The Museum of Abandoned Secrets

Unsparingly and courageously, Oksana Sabushko, Ukraine’s most exciting writer, addresses the social conditions in her country. Daryna is a television...

Unsparingly and courageously, Oksana Sabushko, Ukraine’s most exciting writer, addresses the social conditions in her country. Daryna is a television producer in Kyiv. One day she finds a photograph of Helzja, a partisan and member of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in the 1940s, and decides to trace her story. When, in the course of her research, she falls in love with Helzja's grandson Adrian, she is already in the thick of the action. 

Publisher:
Topic:
Fiction
ISBN:
978-3-85420-772-6
Author:
Oksana Sabuschko
Pages:
850
Format:
23,4x16,1cm
Price:
€ 29.00
warum-ich-nicht-im-netz-bin

Warum ich nicht im Netz bin / Why I Am Not on the Net

Gedichte und Prosa aus dem Krieg / Poems and prose from the war

"It's terrible to see how history is made." Since the summer of 2014, Serhij Zhadan has been recording his experiences...

"It's terrible to see how history is made." Since the summer of 2014, Serhij Zhadan has been recording his experiences of travels to the war zone in eastern Ukraine. Lyrical snapshots as abrupt revelations of an essence, short stories about people who suddenly find themselves on opposing sides, or no longer know where they belong and what is to become of them. In just a few stanzas he conveys something of the tragedy of millions of individuals. The significance of Brecht, whose poetry Zhadan has been translating since the Ukrainian revolution, is palpable in the laconic verses.

Publisher:
ISBN:
978-3-518-07287-5
Author:
Serhij Zhadan
Pages:
180
Price:
€ 16.00
anarchy-in-the-ukr

Anarchy in the UKR / Anarchy in the UKR

"Forget politics, don't read newspapers, don't go online, refuse to vote" - so begins "Left March," a chapter from Serhij...

"Forget politics, don't read newspapers, don't go online, refuse to vote" - so begins "Left March," a chapter from Serhij Zhadan's second volume of prose, which bases its motto on the  Sex Pistols’ song, Anarchy in the UK. Zhadan is currently emerging as the strongest voice in young Ukrainian literature – and a polar opposite to Yuri Andrukhovych. Zhadan's first-person narrator is constantly on a train or travelling through bizarre landscapes. But it is not the ruins of the Habsburg past he’s seeking, but the industrial wastelands of the Donbass in the south-east of the country – the sites of anarcho-communism smashed by the Soviets. No one seems to remember Nestor Machno; there never was any Anarchism. Until it is resurrected in November 2004 in Kharkiv, at the foot of the "Fuck Lenin Monument".

Publisher:
Topic:
Fiction
ISBN:
978-3-518-12522-9
Author:
Serhij Zhadan
Pages:
216
Price:
€ 12.00
maerchen-aus-meinem-luftschutzkeller

Märchen aus meinem Luftschutzkeller /

A blisteringly hot July in the eastern Ukrainian town of Makiyivka; and a house that’s full of stories: On the...

A blisteringly hot July in the eastern Ukrainian town of Makiyivka; and a house that’s full of stories: On the first floor are the crazy party-girl Vira and her bodyguards, armed with shotguns and vodka, celebrate apocalyptic carousals. A few doors down, two business people, bent on expansion, are planning to take over the region's fruit and vegetable market. Two floors up live Olga, who thinks she's a descendant of French royalty, and Firman, who wants to topple all the city's monuments to Lenin. Then there is the young man from the notorious BERKUT special unit, who falls in love with a demonstrator during an operation. And what's the story behind the creepy apartment that's supposed to be haunted? With colourful and virtuoso language and a fine sense of the tragi-comic and the absurdities of human existence, the young Ukrainian writer creates an electrifying atmosphere in which everything seems possible.

Publisher:
Topic:
Fiction
ISBN:
978-3-7099-7253-3
Author:
Oleksij Tschupa
Pages:
208
Price:
€ 19.90
das-licht-der-frauen

Das Licht der Frauen / The Light of Women

In a house in the centre of Lviv live four women who love each other and hate each other in...

In a house in the centre of Lviv live four women who love each other and hate each other in equal measure. They share a desire for freedom as well as rebelliousness – and they share their misfortune in love. Until the day that changes everything: Marianna is shot dead in the street. From the window, her daughter watches as the funeral procession turns into a demonstration. Marianna was not just a celebrated singer, but also an activist in the fight for an independent Ukraine. Years later, beneath the same window stands a man who brings Marianna's daughter closer to her hometown, and to her mother, who died far too young. Against the backdrop of Lviv's turbulent history, Żanna Słoniowska tells of mothers and daughters, of private and social revolts, and the unconditional belief in freedom, emancipation and love.

Publisher:
Topic:
Fiction
ISBN:
978-3-311-15006-0
Author:
Żanna Słoniowska
Pages:
272
Price:
€ 13.00
der-lange-abschied-von-der-angst

Der lange Abschied von der Angst / The Long Farewell to Fear

Just over a month after the terror attack at the Bataclan on 13 November 2015, Oksana Zabuzhko visited Paris. Her...

Just over a month after the terror attack at the Bataclan on 13 November 2015, Oksana Zabuzhko visited Paris. Her experience in the paralysed metropolis prompted the Ukrainian author to reflect on the process of dealing with the fear caused by war and terror. In her essay, she first examines the historical and cultural memory of European states. Starting with the collaborators under the Vichy regime and the failure of left-wing intellectuals during the Second World War, Zabuzhko traverses French intellectual history from Sartre to Derrida to Houellebecq. Where are the parallels between the Nazi invasion of France and the Russian occupation of Crimea since 2014? Is Ukraine a failed state? What influence do politics and the media have on our everyday lives? Referring to the field studies, in a further step she explores the question of how far sex is a metaphor for social and cultural constellations.

Publisher:
Topic:
Non-fiction
ISBN:
978-3-99059-016-4
Author:
Oksana Zabuzhko
Pages:
64
Price:
€ 13.00
die-stadt

Die Stadt / The City

Filled with expectations and great ambitions, Stepan arrives in the metropolis of Kyiv, where he wants to start studying and...

Filled with expectations and great ambitions, Stepan arrives in the metropolis of Kyiv, where he wants to start studying and help build socialism. The city and its inhabitants fascinate him, but they also repel him and fail to meet his exaggerated demands. Above all, however, they plunge him into chaos and scupper his noble plans: when Stepan also becomes passionate about writing, his is finally derailed from his course.

Publisher:
Topic:
Fiction
ISBN:
978-3-945370-35-3
Author:
Valerian Pidmohylny
Pages:
416
Price:
€ 26.00
dein-blut-wird-die-kohle-tränken

Dein Blut wird die Kohle tränken / I Will Mix Your Blood with Coal

Über die Ostukraine / Understanding Ukrainian East

In 2014, supported by local fighters, the Russian army occupied parts of Ukraine's two easternmost regions, Donetsk and Luhansk. During...

In 2014, supported by local fighters, the Russian army occupied parts of Ukraine's two easternmost regions, Donetsk and Luhansk. During the Soviet era, these were considered the vibrant industrial heart of the socialist utopia. At the end of 2016, Oleksandr Mykhed embarked on a research trip through eastern Ukraine to answer the most pressing questions of those who have never seen the region with their own eyes. His book lets you take part in that journey and provides insights into the Ukrainian east. Mykhed recounts conversations with locals and celebrities, such as writer Serhij Zhadan and historian Ihor Koslowskyj, who spent 700 days in Russian captivity. We learn about the miners, about the Belgian and British investors who founded the eastern cities, and about the curse and blessing of coal. In its original edition, this book became a bestseller in Ukraine and won several awards; it was longlisted for the BBC Book Award and the Nonfiction Book Award.

Publisher:
Topic:
Non-fiction
ISBN:
978-3-8382-1648-5
Author:
Oleksandr Mykhed
Pages:
280
Price:
€ 29.90
warum-den-igel-keiner-streichelt

Warum den Igel keiner streichelt / Why Nobody Strokes Hedgehogs

A heart-warming story about true friendship and the joy of accepting yourself as you are....

A heart-warming story about true friendship and the joy of accepting yourself as you are.

The little hedgehog is sad. The other animals are constantly being petted: the dogs, the cats, the hares and the horses. He's the only one that no one strokes. But one day he meets a clever field mouse who shows him that we're all lovable just as we are. And that sometimes it's a wonderful thing to be wild and free.

Andrej Kurkow, born in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1961, has lived in Kiev, Ukraine, since childhood. He studied foreign languages, was a newspaper editor and a cameraman and wrote numerous screenplays. His books have been published in 38 languages.

Tania Goryushina, born in Kiev, Ukraine in 1978, is a Ukrainian artist based in Stockholm. She is a publisher, teacher, and illustrator who develops children's books. In 2009, she won a place at the Academy of Fine Art in Umea, Sweden.

Publisher:
Topic:
Children’s/young adult book
ISBN:
978-3-257-01286-6
Author:
Andrej Kurkow
Illustrator:
Tania Goryushina
Pages:
36
Format:
28 x 20.5 cm
Age:
4+
Price:
€ 14.00
Rights sold to:
Croatia, France, Russia, Sweden
sehen

Sehen / Seeing

A journey into the world of seeing – seeing what’s visible and seeing what’s not visible. A non-fiction picture book...

A journey into the world of seeing – seeing what’s visible and seeing what’s not visible. A non-fiction picture book about the art of seeing the world with ever new eyes!

Along with hearing, seeing is the most important sense for  human beings. How does our sight system work? How is the human eye formed? With my eyes, I can distinguish light and dark, colours and shapes. I can see at first glance whether someone is sad or happy. Small things appear amazingly large when viewed through a microscope. And sometimes our eyes deceive us. Seeing means so much more than we perceive through our eyes.

 

Publisher:
Topic:
Children’s/young adult book
ISBN:
978-3-8369-6050-2
Author:
Romana Romanyschyn
Illustrator:
Andrij Lessiw
Pages:
56
Format:
28,8x26,6cm
Age:
8+
Price:
€ 20.00
nein-ich-bin-nicht-muede

Nein, ich bin nicht müde! - Ja, ich will ins Bett! / No, I'm not tired! - Yes, I want to go to bed!

The bear wants to know what winter is like. Hibernation? No way! When the little forest spirits come to take...

The bear wants to know what winter is like. Hibernation? No way! When the little forest spirits come to take him to bed, he fights back with all his paws. But the yawning winter tiredness overcomes him in the end. The bison, on the other hand, would far rather sleep through the cold season. So he complains bitterly until the forest spirits build him a cosy bed. Too bad that a bison doesn't hibernate at all! A wonderful picture book about falling asleep.

Publisher:
Topic:
Children’s/young adult book
ISBN:
978-3-7707-0240-4
Author:
Oksana Bula
Illustrator:
Oksana Bula
Pages:
80
Age:
3+
Price:
€ 15.00
Date:
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