“No-one with the slightest interest in this war, or the nation on which it is being waged, should fail to read Andrey Kurkov”  Daily Mail
 
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Andrey Kurkov’s war diaries continue – a searing, deeply human portrait of a nation reshaped by war.
 
In this third volume of Andrey Kurkov’s war diaries, Ukraine’s greatest living writer chronicles the third year of the full-scale invasion from his home in Kyiv and from journeys all over the country – capturing moments of horror, resilience, absurdity and grace with unmatched clarity.
 
Children on a contested border wear hooded bulletproof vests to school; soldiers write haiku; professional clowns go to war; and the mother of a young soldier, killed in battle, uses his compensation money to create a rehabilitation centre for veterans. Roses bloom across Ukraine in quiet tribute to a florist and soldier killed in Avdiivka, remembered by those who once bought his flowers.
 
The Dnipro River seems to slow when the first missiles fall, as though nature itself had paused in shock. In Pokrovsk, 7,500 residents refuse to leave a city that no longer exists – their homes obliterated but their will unbroken. A general’s seventeen-year-old pet toad becomes an iconic symbol of defiance. And buried beneath a cherry tree, a murdered writer’s final diary is recovered, a haunting echo of a silenced voice.
 
From the home front to the trenches, Kurkov captures the rhythms of survival – the quiet rituals, unlikely joys, unexpected humour and appalling costs – in an intimate and deeply moving record of national endurance. Three Years on Fire is a luminous act of remembrance, rich with unforgettable detail and human spirit, from a writer whose voice stands witness to everything Ukraine has lost – and everything it refuses to give up.
 
From the international bestselling author of The Stolen Heart, Death and the Penguin and The Grey Bees
 
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Praise for Andrey Kurkov’s war diaries
 
“Andrey Kurkov [is] one of the most articulate ambassadors to the West for the situation in his homeland,”  Sam Leith,  Spectator

“Immediate and important ? From the grim incredulity at Russians massing on the border to the displacement of millions of people, this is an insider’s account of how an ordinary life became extraordinary. It is also about survival, hope and humanity,”  Helen Davies,  The Times

“Ukraine’s greatest novelist is fighting for his country,”  Giles Harvey,  New York Times
 
“The author’s on-the-ground account is packed with surprising details about the human effects of the Russian assault … His voice is genial but also impassioned, never more so than when deploring Putin’s efforts to erase Ukrainian culture and history. Ukraine, he says, ‘will either be free, independent and European, or it will not exist at all’. That’s why the war has to be fought, with no concession of territory. And he remains quietly hopeful that it will be won,”  Blake Morrison,  Guardian

‘Impeccably researched and beautifully written, The Winter Warriors is perfect for fans of Ben Macintyre and Robert Harris’ Paula Hawkins

‘There are echoes of Vasily Grossman in this gripping, chillingly urgent story of the horrors and heroism of war’ A.D. Miller

‘A fascinating and gripping novel about a forgotten corner of the Second World War. Remarkable and revelatory’ William Boyd

‘A sniper’s life, a thriller of the highest quality, as timely as it is gripping, by a very fine writer’ Philippe Sands

***Over 270,000 copies sold in French***

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November, 1939. A conscription officer arrives in the peaceful farming village of Rautjärvi. The Soviet Union has invaded, and for the first time in its history as an independent country, Finland is at war.

Setting off into the depths of winter to face the Red Army, the small group of childhood friends recruited from Rautjärvi have no idea whether any of them will ever return home. But their unit has a secret weapon: the young sniper Simo Häyhä, whose lethal skill in the snow-bound forests of the front line will earn him the nickname ‘The White Death’.

Drawing on the real-life figures and battles of the Finnish-Soviet Winter War, The Winter Warriors is a riveting, heart-pounding, utterly epic historical thriller from one of Europe’s most acclaimed crime writers.

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‘The plot revolves around a small group of village lads who are conscripted together, one of whom, Simo, becomes the so-called White Death, one of the world’s most deadly snipers ? What makes it tick is the urgent, vital narrative as the Russians surge across the border and the Finns fight back with little more than grenades and rifles’  Bookbrunch
 
‘Chilling and distressing ? a genuine, breath-holding knock-out’ Le Parisien

‘A masterpiece’ Le Figaro  

‘A dazzling success’La Croix  

‘Magificent’L’Express  

‘Captivating’ Télérama  

‘Exhaustively researched, subtle, sensitive, and set against the background of a war which resonates with the present day. There are more than a few similarities between this story and the current Russian aggression in Ukraine’ France Info

‘Norek depicts with great humanity and profound empathy the courage and resilience of the Finns, fighting for survival in extreme conditions’Actualitté

‘At once epic and intimate’ Radio Télévision Suisse
 

**Winner of the Prix Jean Giono, the Prix Renaudot des lycéens and the Prix Le Mans – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry**

**Finalist for the Prix Interallié**  

**Shortlisted for the Prix Renaudot, the Prix André Malraux  and the Prix “Les Visionnaires”**

**Longlisted for the Prix Goncourt**

***Olivier Norek’s thriller  Between Two Worlds  was  The Times & Sunday Times  Crime Novel of the Year 2024***

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In November 1944, in the worst winter ever known in Bologna, in the depths of the war, the bomb-scarred streets are home to starving refugees who have fled the advancing Allies. The Fascist Black Brigades, the officers of the S.S. and the partisans of the Italian Resistance compete for control of the city streets in bloody skirmishes.
 
Comandante De Luca, who has proved himself “the most brilliant investigator” in Bologna, but who is now unwillingly working for the Political Police in a building that doubles as a torture facility, finds himself in trouble when three murders land on his desk: a professor shot through the eye, an engineer beaten to death, and a German corporal left to be gnawed on by rats in a flooded cellar.
 
De Luca must rapidly unravel all three cases with ten lives on the line: ten Italian hostages who will face a Nazi firing squad if the corporal’s killing is not solved to the German command’s satisfaction.
 
As he navigates a web of personal and political motivations – his life increasingly at risk – De Luca will not stop until he has uncovered the dangerous secrets concealed in the frozen heart of his city.

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‘A stripped-down historical thriller loaded with tension’ La Repubblica
 
‘The Darkest Winter paints the portrait of a city devastated by war, scarred by bombs and with its poorest inhabitants living in desperation. The result is a living fresco, a snapshot of an era. The quality of Lucarelli’s research, in-depth analysis and narrative style put him in a league of his own’ Corriere della Serra
 
‘Lucarelli has proven yet again that he is an extraordinary writer, navigating with ease the murky waters between crime fiction, historical novel and social commentary’ La Nuova
 
‘Lucarelli’s best work’ La Lettura
 
Praise for Carlo Lucarelli
 
 ‘A fresh and exciting new voice in Italian crime fiction’ Booklist
 
‘A stunning tour de force’ Sunday Telegraph
 
‘A compact and powerful masterpiece’ Guardian
 
‘Full of the tensions and atmosphere Lucarelli is so adept at creating’ The Times

“Uplifting and utterly defiant,”  Matt Nixson,  Daily Express

“No-one with the slightest interest in this war, or the nation on which it is being waged, should fail to read Andrey Kurkov,”  Dominic Lawson,  Daily Mail
 
“For centuries, attempts have been made to force Ukrainians to forget their native language, to stop singing Ukrainian songs and to abandon their history. For almost 400 years, Russia has been fighting against Ukrainian identity.”
 
Ten years on from the annexation of Crimea, two years on from Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian people continue to fight back. In the second volume of his war diaries, Andrey Kurkov gives a fresh perspective on a people for whom resistance and solidarity have become a matter of survival.
 
Our Daily War is a chronological record of the heterogeneous mix that comprises Ukrainian life and thought in the teeth of Russian aggression, from the constant stress of air raids, the deportation of citizens from the occupied regions and the whispers of governmental corruption to Christmas celebrations, crowdfunding and the recipe for a “trench candle”.
 
Kurkov’s human’s-eye view on the war in Ukraine is by turns bitingly satirical, tragic, humorous and heartfelt. It is also, in the manner of Pepys, an invaluable insight into the history, politics and culture of Ukraine. Our Daily War is the ideal primer for anyone who would like to know what life is like in that country today.

“Andrey Kurkov [is] one of the most articulate ambassadors to the West for the situation in his homeland,”  Sam Leith,  Spectator

“Immediate and important ? From the grim incredulity at Russians massing on the border to the displacement of millions of people, this is an insider’s account of how an ordinary life became extraordinary. It is also about survival, hope and humanity,”  Helen Davies,  The Times

“Ukraine’s greatest novelist is fighting for his country,”  Giles Harvey,  New York Times
 
“The author’s on-the-ground account is packed with surprising details about the human effects of the Russian assault … His voice is genial but also impassioned, never more so than when deploring Putin’s efforts to erase Ukrainian culture and history. Ukraine, he says, “will either be free, independent and European, or it will not exist at all”. That’s why the war has to be fought, with no concession of territory. And he remains quietly hopeful that it will be won,”  Blake Morrison,  Guardian