Arabesques: New Stories - Paperback

From an acclaimed Ukrainian author, snapshots of a city haunted by war

Highlighting the upheaval since the 2022 Russian invasion, characters from Zhadan's Mesopotamia and The Orphanage reappear, this time with entirely different concerns: evacuating an elderly woman after the bombardment of a residential area; finding a job for someone who returned from the front with significant disabilities; attending the funeral of a colleague who had led a combat unit on the front lines.

These stories, composed shortly before the author joined the Ukrainian armed forces, give voice to the vulnerability of those whose lives have been transformed by war, who have come to accept that death lurks around every corner, in every building, and on every square.