In Wartime: Stories from Ukraine

Product Description

At their barricade here, close to the entrance to the allotments, the men had made themselves a comfortable shelter with a table and chairs. A few of them had guns, but many did not. On the table was a vase of flowers. Suddenly a car drove up and three local men got out with musical instruments. They were touring the barricades. They began to sing . . .

Making his way from the Polish border in the west, through the capital city and the heart of the 2014 revolution, to the eastern frontline near the Russian border, seasoned war reporter Tim Judah brings a rare glimpse of the reality behind the headlines. Along the way he talks to the people living through the conflict - mothers, soldiers, businessmen, poets, politicians - whose memories of a contested past shape their attitudes, allegiances and hopes for the future. Together, their stories paint a vivid picture of a nation trapped between powerful forces, both political and historical.

This urgent, insightful account of the human side of the conflict in Ukraine is an evocative exploration of what the second largest country in Europe feels like in wartime.

'Tim Judah has got a lot closer to the war in eastern Ukraine than most western reporters - close enough to be able to convey vividly to readers the smells and sounds . . . His experience of the Balkan Wars helped Judah spot this war as it mutated from malignant propaganda into blood-spattered reality. As a reporter, he excels at letting the Ukrainians themselves do the talking.' Niall Ferguson

'The war in Ukraine was fought at the height of postmodernity, and at first images trumped words and propaganda overwhelmed reality. Yet with time it was a few journalists who transformed the two dimensions of the screen into the three of life, the clichés of governments into the faces of people. Tim Judah, one of the best of them, does not tell us what to think about war but instead teaches us how: with courage, humility, attention to human detail and admirable historical intuition.' Timothy Snyder

'Based on interviews with witnesses and victims on the ground, In Wartime is both astute political analysis and vivid war reportage of what's really happening in the dirty war in Ukraine.' Simon Sebag Montefiore