Artem Tschech Books

The narrative follows the journey of a Ukrainian writer and military serviceman, exploring themes of personal growth and resilience amidst the backdrop of conflict. Awarded the 2021 BBC News Ukraine Book of the Year, it presents a raw and candid bildungsroman, blending elements of a picaresque tale that captures the complexities of living in the shadow of war. Through its vivid storytelling, the book delves into the impact of external strife on individual lives and aspirations.

The book is a first person account of a soldier’s journey, and is based on Artem Chekh’s diary that he wrote while and after his service in the war in Donbas. One of the most important messages the book conveys is that war means pain. Chekh is not showing the reader any heroic combat, focusing instead on the quiet, mundane, and harsh soldier’s life. Chekh masterfully selects the most poignant details of this kind of life.Artem Chekh (1985) is a contemporary Ukrainian writer, author of more than ten books of fiction and essays. Absolute Zero (2017), an account of Chekh’s service in the army in the war in Donbas, is one of his latest books, for which he became a recipient of several prestigious awards in Ukraine, such as the Joseph Conrad Prize (2019), the Gogol Prize (2018), the Voyin Svitla (2018), and the Litaktsent Prize (2017). This is his first book-length translation into English.

Who are you? – sometimes asks the young Tymophiy his injured by the distant war enemy and friend, the tormentor and mentor Felix. Who am I? - asks an almost adult autobiographical Tymophiy at the end of the novel. The path from the first question to the second is inevitable for the hero of any novel about becoming. In case of Artem Chekh, upbringing in the shadow of repulsive experience of someone else's war, which suddenly turns out to be a moral and physical preparation for his own, although we will not find it in this novel. But, perhaps, we will find all those children's and youth initiations, through which we ourselves had to break through to a completely different than expected adult life.