Eugenia Kuznetsova’s “Ask Miechka” to be published in France

Eugenia Kuznetsova’s novel “Спитайте Мієчку” (“Ask Miechka”) will be published in French as “Demandez à Mietchka” by Les Argonautes Éditeur. The book is scheduled for release on Sept. 4, 2026.

The Old Lion Publishing House, which published the original Ukrainian edition in 2021, announced the forthcoming translation on Facebook. Nikol Dziub translated the novel into French, while Lauriane Tiberghien created the design for the edition. The publication received support from the Ukrainian Book Institute through its Translate Ukraine program.

The book is already available for preorder. The French edition, published as a 272-page paperback, is priced at 22 euros.

The French publisher describes “Demandez à Mietchka” as a luminous and deeply human novel in which ordinary things gently remind readers of what matters most. According to the publisher’s description, Kuznetsova explores the invisible connections between people and the ways in which their lives are shaped by those who came before them.

The novel follows women from four generations of one family over the course of a summer. Sisters Miechka and Lilichka return to their grandmother’s old country house, where they spent their childhood, as they postpone decisions about love, emigration, and their futures. Their grandmother is nearing the end of her life, while their mother fears becoming the eldest woman in the family. Through the relationships between sisters, mothers, daughters, and grandmothers, Kuznetsova explores family ties, difficult choices, and experiences that often remain unspoken. The novel combines humor, irony, and melancholy.

“Ask Miechka” was shortlisted for the BBC News Ukraine Book of the Year award in 2021. In 2022, it received one of five special mentions awarded by the European Union Prize for Literature.

As reported earlier, translations of the novel have been published or announced in Finnish, Polish, Serbian, Bosnian, Hungarian, Macedonian, Latvian, French, Greek, Italian, Bulgarian, and Slovak. 68,412 copies of “Ask Miechka” had been sold since its Ukrainian release, placing it among Ukraine’s most popular contemporary books.

Kuznetsova is also the author of the novels “The Ladder” and “Sheep Are Safe,” as well as nonfiction and illustrated books. “The Ladder” won the BBC News Ukraine Book of the Year award in 2023, while Eero Balk received the 2024 Drahomán Prize for its Finnish translation.

The Old Lion Publishing House has also announced that “Ask Miechka” will be published in Italian with support from Translate Ukraine 2026.