The Death of a Soldier Told by His Sister

- Blurb -

A moving and thought-provoking story of loss and war from the Director of the Ukrainian institute, told in a powerful blend of memoir and essay***' Elegantly written. . . packed with the sharpness of moments when a death suddenly becomes real' -TLS' If you want to understand Ukraine' s determination to resist, Olesya Khromeychuk' s book is essential. ' -Paul Mason, author of How to Stop Fascism' Moving, intelligent, and brilliantly written. ' -Anna Reid, author of Borderland: A Journey Through the History of UkraineWITH A FOREWORD BY PHILIPPE SANDS AND AN INTRODUCTION BY ANDREY KURKOVKilled by shrapnel as he served in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Olesya Khromeychuk' s brother Volodymyr died on the frontline in eastern Ukraine. As Olesya tries to come to terms with losing 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 and how societies respond to them, and as a woman, a civilian, and a sister. In this timely blend of memoir and essay, Olesya Khromeychuk tells the story of her brother - the wiser older sibling, the artist and the soldier - and of his death. Deeply moving and thoughtful, The Death of a Soldier Told by His Sister 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. Olesya' s vivid writing is a personal and powerful commitment to honesty in life, in death and in memory. ' 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. ' ' In vivid, intimate prose and with unflinching honesty, Olesya Khromeychuk introduces us to the brother she lost in the war and found in her grief. ' -Dr Rory Finnin, University of Cambridge' I admire a book that invites me to grapple with knotty questions. Olesya Khromeychuk has written such a book - beautifully. ' - Professor Cynthia Enloe, author of Nimo' s War