The war in Ukraine and its impact on Ukrainians. A personal perspective

Andrey Kurkov born 23 April 1961 in Leningrad, Russia) is a Ukrainian novelist who, at least until the current war, composed his novels in his native language, Russian. He is the author of 20 novels and 10 books for children. His work is currently translated into 37 languages, including English, Japanese, French, Chinese, Swedish and Hebrew. He has also written assorted articles for various publications worldwide including New York Times, The Guardian, New Statesman, La Liberation, Le Monde, Die Welt, Die Zeit. Apart from literature Andrey Kurkov is regularly involved in filmscript-writing. His own film adaptation of “The Matter of Death and Life” got him shortlisted for Best European Filmscript-Writer of the Year Award in Berlin 1997. (The film’s title is “The Friend of the Deceased” (France-Ukraine, 1997)). The same year he was invited to join European Film Academy (EFA).

Andrey Kurkov is the President of PEN Ukraine, a non-profit dedicated to protecting authors’ freedom of speech. He often runs literary workshops, also for very young participants teaching them to write children’s stories. In 2008-2010, as a jury member, he was on the board of the Man Booker International Prize.

He himself got the Readers’ Prize in Basel (Switzerland) in 2002, Writer of the Year in 2001 (Ukraine), International Nikolai Gogol Prize (Rome, Italy, 2012), The Readers Choice Prize for “The Gardener of Ochakov” (Cognack, France, 2012) His books are full of black humour, post-Soviet reality and elements of surrealism.

Under the current circumstances, Kurkov directs all of his attention to Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine and Ukrainians. His articles are published and shared around the world and he regularly speaks to international audiences about the reality of living through a war a 21st century war of aggression against his own country.

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