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A review by littoral
I Will Die in a Foreign Land by Kalani Pickhart
4.0
Kalani Pickhart’s I Will Die in a Foreign Land is told through the narratives of 4 individuals caught in the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution that ultimately saw the overthrow of a Russia-aligned Ukrainian government. Katya (a Ukrainian-born doctor raised in the US), Misha (a survivor of Chernobyl), Dascha (a Crimean journalist), and Slava (a women’s rights activist) each have a characteristic that makes them an outsider, and yet convey a core sense of the Ukrainian heart. Interspersed with their narratives is the tale of the Captain, a mysterious figure in the Revolution whose presence ultimately draws their stories together.
Things I liked about this book: while I had heard of the Euromaidan and Ukrainian Revolution when it occurred, like many I did not appreciate its political significance until much more recently, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The book’s setting deftly uses the historical events as a driving force of the narrative while keeping the characters’ stories front and center, and without providing unmanageable detail (however, do read the timeline provided at the beginning to the book - it is a great aid to make sense of the rest). Key political issues in Ukraine - sexual violence, women’s rights, free speech, the legacy of Chernobyl - are explored without feeling perfunctory. And there’s a great callout to folk traditions with the use of a Kobzari (bard) chorus, not unlike a Greek chorus, who provide a sense of timelessness to identifying the cyclical nature of war and violence that are evoked by the events.
A final note: I think I ultimately found the fragmented structure of the book (interweaved “cassette recordings” with the narrative threads and “found” fragments including news reportage and lists of Euromaidan poster titles) to be effective in generating a historical assemblage and lending a sense of importance that befits the book’s topic. But I can see how this can come off as gimmicky and distracting for some readers - I was torn about it throughout the time I was reading and to some extent still am. But if you can get past this, the book has a lot to offer thematically that I’ll be thinking about for some time.
Things I liked about this book: while I had heard of the Euromaidan and Ukrainian Revolution when it occurred, like many I did not appreciate its political significance until much more recently, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The book’s setting deftly uses the historical events as a driving force of the narrative while keeping the characters’ stories front and center, and without providing unmanageable detail (however, do read the timeline provided at the beginning to the book - it is a great aid to make sense of the rest). Key political issues in Ukraine - sexual violence, women’s rights, free speech, the legacy of Chernobyl - are explored without feeling perfunctory. And there’s a great callout to folk traditions with the use of a Kobzari (bard) chorus, not unlike a Greek chorus, who provide a sense of timelessness to identifying the cyclical nature of war and violence that are evoked by the events.
A final note: I think I ultimately found the fragmented structure of the book (interweaved “cassette recordings” with the narrative threads and “found” fragments including news reportage and lists of Euromaidan poster titles) to be effective in generating a historical assemblage and lending a sense of importance that befits the book’s topic. But I can see how this can come off as gimmicky and distracting for some readers - I was torn about it throughout the time I was reading and to some extent still am. But if you can get past this, the book has a lot to offer thematically that I’ll be thinking about for some time.