UK is going to publish a book by Ukrainian historian about the loss of her brother-soldier

British publisher Monoray is going to release a book by historian and director of Ukrainian Institute in London Olesya Khromeychuk The Death of a Soldier Told by His Sister. The author announced it in her Instagram.

The book tells about author’s personal experience of dealing with the loss of her brother Volodymyr who was killed in action in 2017.

In The Death of a Soldier Told by His Sister which is described by the publishers as “deeply moving and thoughtful blend of memoir and essay” Khromeychuk writes about her living through the loss of her brother. She also tries to process the Russian invasion of Ukraine: as an immigrant living far from the frontline, as a historian of war, as a woman, a civilian, and a sister.

She picks apart the ways political violence shapes everyone and everything it touches and “depicts with extraordinary intimacy the singular and complicated bond between a brother and sister”.

“Soon before he died, my brother said he had become a warrior. Why would a thinker, an artist, wish to become a soldier? Perhaps I didn’t appreciate what it meant to be a thinker and an artist, or, maybe, what it meant to be a soldier,” comments Khromeychuk.

 

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Olesya Khromeychuk’s (@olesya_khromeychuk) post

During her interview with Korydor (online-magazine on modern culture) Khromeychuk shared that in order to process the loss of her brother she wrote down some sketches and short stories about her experience. Later she showed her pieces to her friends from London Molodyy Theatre. They suggested creating a play based on that material.

This is how the play All That Remained appeared. Khromeychuk calls it “a story of her brother’s death written for western audience”. The performance also included the videos Volodymyr took while being at frontline and the stories on how Ukrainians purchase ammunition for soldiers on Ebay or Amazon.

The performance became a part of the biggest theatrical festival – Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

The book will be published with a foreword by the President of English PEN Philippe Sands and an introduction by the Head of Ukrainian PEN Andrey Kurkov.

It shall be reminded that the diary of 12-year-old Ukrainian Yeva Skaletska You Don’t Know What War Is: War Diary of a Girl from Ukraine will be published in the USA and in the UK.

Cappy and the Whale, a children story from Ukrainian writer Kateryna Babkina will be published in British publishing house Penguin Random House.