Overview

Both a celebration and a lament for Ukraine, a moving personal memoir taking us from Katya’s idyllic childhood with her siblings: holidays in Crimea and carefree days working the land at the Dacha; to the sickening impact of Putin’s invasion and its effect on Katya, her friends and family - the anxiety, fear and heartache. The desperate attempts to make contact with friends and ensure loved ones are safe. Throughout it all bestrides Babushka, Katya’s ‘favourite person on earth’ still living in the family’s apartment block in Kyiv. Babushka learned fortitude at an early age when her own mother was taken by the Germans and she was rescued by a Jewish doctor whose identity was kept secret. When she is not growing vegetables and making vats of borsch, she is reading the sexy bits from novels out loud to her granddaughter. But in this last year she has turned her hand to a recipe of a different type - Molotov cocktails - in preparation for an attack on her apartment block.

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9781739193041

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Reviews

A window into the experience and thoughts of Ukrainians this book welds words and pictures together with great poetic force. - Andrey Kurkov. A timely reminder of war s violent intrusion into ordinary lives of ordinary people. Behind the headlines of the war in Ukraine, Hudson vividly describes a family whose daily activities take on symbolic significance when their lives are changed utterly by war. - Clive Myrie

The Bookseller Editor's Choice February 2023

Author Information

Katya Hudson was brought up in Kyiv by her Ukrainian Mum and British Dad, and Babushka Zhana, her beloved and indomitable granny. After several years away she returned in 2020 and embraced her home anew, revelling in the vibrancy of the city and its buzzing culture. She graduated in Summer 2022 from Kingston University and is currently living in Paris.

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