Sky Above Kharkiv

Serhiy Zhadan is Ukraine’s beloved literary and activist voice. He has received the Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, and several international literature prizes. His previous books include Mesopotamia; The Orphanage; and What We Live For, What We Die For: Selected Poems. Zhadan lives in Kharkiv. Reilly Costigan-Humes and Isaac Stackhouse Wheeler translate contemporary Ukrainian literature.

“[A] personal record of the first four months of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, recounting the shelling and killing but also resistance in Kharkiv.”—New York Times Book Review“Offers an important window into those first days of war, and highlights the extent to which local volunteer movements stepped in when the state was unable to cope.”—The Telegraph, “Best Ukraine Books of 2023”“A time capsule of the awful early months of the invasion, when Ukrainians had to adjust to the realities of wartime and the world rallied to support their cause.”—Linda Kinstler, Times Literary Supplement“Costigan-Humes and Wheeler endearingly capture Zhadan’s wit and colloquial tone. . . . Language may not overrun mercenaries or shoot down missiles, but it can—when wielded by writers like Zhadan and so many of his compatriots—help defeat prejudice, ignorance, and skepticism, with words as well as arms bringing Ukraine one day closer to victory.”—Cory Oldweiler, Boston Globe“Zhadan’s Sky Above Kharkiv should be valued for preserving an important personal testimony from one of the most pivotal battles during Russia’s all-out war against Ukraine.”—Kate Tsurkan, Kyiv Independent“Instead of high politics, this book is about endurance. . . . Every day since the Russian invasion [Zhadan] has posted informative, descriptive articles and poems on Facebook.”—Allan Massie, The ScotsmanFinalist for the Witold Pilecki International Book Award, special prize category, sponsored by The Pilecki Institute“This powerful book from Ukraine’s iconic poet-activist is at once a moving testament to the spirit of a nation that will not back down, an indictment of a bloody and unnecessary war, and a call on the rest of us to defend the principles of freedom and democracy wherever they are threatened.”—Anne Applebaum“In this, his ‘diary for everyone,’ poet Serhiy Zhadan turns his Facebook posts into urgent wartime communiques in a language that digs through debris, sweeps up broken glass and records the valor of a city organizing to defend itself. His daily missives call for supplies, offer advice, issue warnings and preserve for posterity a record of ‘the chimerical, tenuous nature of danger and vulnerability.’ It isn’t meant to be poetry but poetry is everywhere within it. This is language with its breath held, language that, as the poet hoped, ‘stands up to silence and death.’ As Zhadan says of Ukrainian poetry, Sky Above Kharkiv ‘stitches up the body of history, holds everything together, doesn’t let us forget a single thing.’”—Carolyn Forché“The indefatigable Serhiy Zhadan is writing against death. His love-letter-in-posts to the people of Kharkiv will live far longer than Putin’s regime—as well as—let us all desperately hope—his example that real toughness does not emerge in coldness and cruelty, but in solidarity and kindness.”—Marci Shore“This is a sobering eyewitness account of the Russian aggression that turned the peaceful skies over Ukraine into clouds of fear and death. But more than that, it is a story of Ukrainian defiance and resistance, recorded in real time in the online posts of one of the country’s leading intellectual and cultural figures, who refused to abandon his city during the most dramatic months of the war. Sky Above Kharkiv conveys the indomitable spirit of the Ukrainians—revealing why they did not surrender, and why they will win.”—Serhii Plokhy, author of The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History