Arabesques

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

The women, men, and children in Serhiy Zhadan’s new collection of stories testify to the dignity of daily life in the war-battered Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. Through a series of powerful vignettes we witness the ordinary experiences of people in extraordinary times—weddings, love affairs, tense visits home from the battlefield, and desperate deliveries of humanitarian aid.

Highlighting the upheaval since the 2022 Russian invasion, characters from Zhadan’s Mesopotamia and The Orphanage reappear, this time with entirely different concerns, such as evacuating an old woman after the bombardment of a residential area, finding a job for someone who returned from the front with significant disabilities, and 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 National Guard, 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.

Author Biography

Serhiy Zhadan is an award-winning contemporary Ukrainian author of poetry and prose. His books include The Orphanage, Sky Above Kharkiv, and How Fire Descends. Isaac Stackhouse Wheeler is a translator, poet, and educator from New Hampshire. He lives and teaches in New York City.