Diary of an Invasion

 

Diary of an Invasion / Andrey Kurkov
Dallas, TX: Deep Vellum, 2023, c2022.
282 p. 

Kurkov is probably one of the best known Ukrainian writers today; he speaks to the West very effectively. This is the diary he kept as the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February, 2022. It covers all those moments familiar to those following this war; the unexpected bombs, the realization sinking in that this was real, the widespread displacement of Ukrainians to the western part of the country in the first few days and weeks, which Kurkov was part of as well. 

It's a writer's diary, so this is a polished and literary representation of the immediacy of the weeks after the invasion. He describes the people they meet, those they've left behind, their longing for their home and the small things they had to leave without. It has that immediacy of a diary, but also a literary arc of sorts. In that sense it's quite different from the non-literary diaries that I've read by Yeva Skalietska or Katya Tokar, which are quite raw. And different again from the diaries of Olena Stiazhkina, who is another literary voice but had been dealing with the realities of war since 2014, since she lived in the Donbas. 

I thought this book was well balanced, though, and a good one for Western readers as Kurkov communicates well and is known to many readers outside of Ukraine already. He does capture the response of a family who is both fairly well off and who are Russian speakers; this invasion is shocking to them on many levels. 

There is a second diary out now, and a third coming, and I believe it's important to keep hearing lived experiences of this war started by Russia, and not to look away. So I'll be reading those as well, and I'm sure that Kurkov will be able to continue to draw literary parallels and connect history to current events, as he does so well in this volume.