IN THE DAILY WAR

Tessa Szyszkowitz in conversation with Andrej Kurkow

IN THE DAILY WAR

Andrei Kurkov, Ukraine's best-known author, constantly speaks out in favour of hope, in favour of a Ukrainian future. His diary entries show what the war, which is becoming more and more integrated into people's everyday lives, is doing to them. The discrepancy of each successive second becomes palpable: opera performances in daylight - a bomb strikes; people swimming in the sea - a mine explodes; sleeping through the night - but the enemy military knows the GPS data of every bedroom ...

Andrei Kurkov reports - about everyday life in a state of emergency, about the inconspicuous moments, about air raids, friendship and worry, identity, about a battle of words and cultures, about the unity and diversity of a country; he writes about life in war. He writes so that we do not forget. Since 2013, since the protests on the Maidan. Since 2014, since the annexation of Crimea. He writes through explosions in the night and in every restless second. As long as the inhabitants of Ukraine are not safe. As long as they are not free.

Andriy Kurkov was born in 1961 in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, and lived in Kyiv until before the war of aggression against Ukraine. He studied foreign languages, was a newspaper editor and a prison guard during his military service. He then became a cameraman and wrote numerous screenplays. He has been a freelance writer since 1996 and works for radio and television. In 2022, Haymon published Andrej Kurkov's notes from Ukraine: „Diary of an Invasion“, in which he dedicated himself to the first months of the war of aggression and for which he received the Geschwister Scholl Prize 2022. His latest work „In the Daily War“ was published in 2024.

Tessa Szyszkowitz, Falter columnist and author, was a correspondent in Moscow, Brussels, Jerusalem and London. Curator of the Philoxenia series at the Kreiskyforum, Senior Associate Fellow Royal United Services Institute in London.

Andrej Kurkov, Rebecca Dewald:
Diary of an invasion
Haymon Verlag, October 2024, ISBN 978-3-7099-8179-5,€ 19.90

In co-operation with BUCH VIENNA 2024 from 20-24 November 2024