I haven’t read a ton of war books, but I do not hesitate in saying that this may be one of the best I’ve read, and it set a very high bar for all the others I may read in the future.

The book is about Pasha, a Ukrainian language teacher who is tasked with going to the next city over to get his nephew Sasha out of an Orphanage, where he was left by his mother. However, the Ukrainian war is waging, and the front moves, putting the Orphanage right in the war zone. However, Pasha persists, making his way through the area to rescue his nephew. 

I was about half way through when I realized the names of the countries were never spoken, and that creative choice blew me away. We never really know which country Pasha is in, or what his nationality is. Soldiers he encounters are either not identified, or identified by whether they were flying “the same flag flown at his school”, or a different one, but which is which is never noted. Civilians and soldiers alike are commented as speaking Russian (well, casually, or formally, “as if they learned it in school”), or a mix of Russian and Ukrainian. The reader is never allowed to fully trust or understand who Pasha is dealing with, just as he never really knows where their loyalties lie. It lead to introspection though: in a war, the civilans lose. Is Pasha Russian? Were the kind people he met Russian or Ukrainian? Where the scammers he evaded on his side or the other side? It doesn’t really matter when a man is just trying to rescue his nephew. 

Pahsa too was a fascinating character. A bit of a bitter pushover at the start, he undergoes major growth, at the end, he defends himself, Sasha, and the other civilians caught in the crosshairs of a war zone. Generally apolitical, and ambivalent about his subject and students, he sees what impact he can really have. 

The ending was masterful. It bled between truth and fiction, with a revelatory moment that had me on edge to the last page. You will not regret reading this book.