One week to go until the publication of APOCALYPSE BAROQUE
It was incredible to see the freshly printed hardbacks of Sasha Dovzhyk’s Apocalypse Baroque: Tales from Ukraine at War for the first time last night, at the first anniversary party of her publisher, the new independent and non-profit start-upExtraordinary Books.
Sasha moved to Ukraine permanently in November 2023 to found INDEX: Institute for Documentation and Exchange. This institution rose as a result of on-the-ground work in Ukraine — collecting testimonies and helping foreign journalists cover the war since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.
Another result of this work is Apocalypse Baroque. In a week’s time Sasha will be in the UK to discuss and celebrate this remarkable book, which will be published on 24 September.
The launch will take place on 28 September at 6:30pm at Funny Weather Bookshop in Hampstead, in partnership with the Ukrainian Institute London and INDEX. Sasha will be in conversation with Uilleam Blacker. We hope to see you there! Please reserve a ticket by emailing funnyweatherltd@gmail.com
On 30 September at 7:30pm Sasha will be participating inUkrainian Lessons: Art in a Time of War, a Guardian Live event at Conway Hall with Charlotte Higgins, Olesya Khromeychuk and Olia Hercules. Book here.
Sasha was also in conversation with Charlotte Higgins at Lviv Book Forum last week, about Charlotte’s book Ukrainian Lessons: Art in a Time of War.
In her article in the Guardian earlier this month, ‘When does rage help us, and when does it harm us? Ukraine has taught me the answers’, Charlotte shared some powerful words from Sasha:
In the lead up to publication Sasha has received some truly wonderful advance quotes from fellow writers and journalists.
‘What a tremendous book – oracular, clear, vital. It will shift the ground under every reader of it – its take on story and reality delivers earth-shaking understanding of both.’
Ali Smith
‘Raging, tender and utterly singular, Sasha Dovzhyk’s Apocalypse Baroque fuses fairytales to memoir and passionate argument to create an extraordinary lightning bolt of a book. It is moving, devastating and a clarion cry against indifference to the cruelty and violence of Russia’s war against Ukraine.’
Charlotte Higgins
‘This book comes from deep within a time and place of fighting. Fight or you won’t exist. And this ‘or you won’t exist’ is there on every page and when it is fused with Dovzhyk’s gift for prose that grips your being in its entirety, and with her mind on fire in just about every sense, you’re left with a manuscript unlike anything else.’
Maria Tumarkin
‘Sasha Dovzhyk’s spellbinding, elegant book comes to us as a voice for a generation’
Natalie Nougayrède
‘Raw, erudite, mystical. Ukraine’s defiant, raging, punk rock spirit is captured here, like lightning in a bottle.’
Andrew Harding
‘Apocalypse Baroque is a staggering achievement and a dark miracle of a collection. The wonder-tale framing of these short pieces brings home the horrific realities of Russian invasion like nothing else. Expertly researched, compellingly written and absolutely essential. There aren't enough accolades. Read the book.’
Fiona Benson
‘War stories and folktales can resonate with one another in the most unexpected ways. This book has a distinctive voice. Sometimes, it is precisely the book’s voice that shifts the reader’s perspective on the events being described.’
Andrey Kurkov
‘Apocalypse Baroque is an extraordinary book: lyrical, deeply moving, profoundly unafraid. I carried it with me through the Donetsk region, reading it during air raids in Kramatorsk. Sasha's book is a vital, important work: it will teach you so much about Ukraine's proud history and culture, and why darkness will never win over light.’
Felicity Spector
You can pre-order Apocalypse Baroque here.
Sasha will also be speaking on the BBC World Service Weekend show on Sunday 20 September, from 6:30am to 9am. Listen here.
Thumbnail image © Iryna Sereda