A cultural portrait of eastern Ukraine, and an urgent, essential read.
Since the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine in 2014, its eastern region – Donbas – has been synonymous with conflict. With the escalation of that war in 2022, its cities such as Bakhmut and Lysychansk have become familiar to us through the images and reports of brutal devastation. Victoria Donovan excavates a rich, multicultural history of this area, and paints a radically different picture.
Travelling from the dramatic, jagged peaks of Bilokuz’mynivka to the marshland of Mariupol, from a warehouse rave to an abandoned gypsum mine, the physical world and its importance to this region’s identity is brought to vivid life. But above all else, by speaking to those whose lives are embedded there now – curators, artists, railway workers, young people who have grown up amidst instability and destruction – Donovan amplifies local voices and reveals the intensely personal lived reality of Putin’s war.
Revelatory, evocative and deeply humane, Life In Spite of Everything is a celebration of a country’s past and present, and its people’s tenacity, creativity and independence.
‘In this book Victoria Donovan takes you to the places that don’t exist anymore. It’s like a virtual tour. You meet real people, you hear their voices and stories, you easily imagine yourself on the Mariupol beach one year before the full-scale Russian invasion. This land and life are so beautifully remembered! Victoria Donovan created an emotional and very engaging requiem for Eastern Ukraine.’ Andrey Kurkov, author of Death and the Penguin and Grey Bees
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