American-born Larissa Babij is at home in Kyiv when Russia launches its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Her grandparents left Ukraine amidst the violence of World War II, and nearly 80 years later, she is fleeing the advancing Russian army. A Kind of Refugee chronicles the first year of all-out war in Ukraine through vivid dispatches that Babij sent to readers abroad. In cities flooded with refugees and bustling with humanitarian aid efforts, or while supporting an innovative military unit making DIY drones, Babij examines Ukrainian cultures of cooperation. Reflecting on her American upbringing, she ponders the premium that Western societies—shaped by the traumatic history of WW II—place on security. When she returns to Kyiv, sirens, Russian missile strikes, and long periods of darkness organize her days. This moving account of taking responsibility for your home and your history concludes with several essays on theater published between 2015 and 2021. Written with a fierce love for Ukraine and its people, this book is a testament to the courage of ordinary people committed to freedom while defending their homeland.
Про автора
Vladislav Davidzon studied Intellectual History and Comparative Literature at the City University of New York and holds a Master’s degree in Human Rights from the Global Campus EMA program in Venice. He has been reporting on Ukrainian Jewish life for Tablet Magazine since 2012; he is the founding editor of The Odessa Review. Davidzon’s articles have appeared in Foreign Policy, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Observer, and Bookforum Magazine. Davidzon is a fellow at the Atlantic Council and the author of Jewish-Ukrainian Relations and the Birth of a Political Nation (ibidem Press, 2023) and From Odessa With Love (Academica Press, 2021). He lives in Paris.