Yaroslav Trofimov – författare

THE COMPELLING ACCOUNT FROM THE FRONT LINES OF THE WAR IN UKRAINEFINALIST FOR THE ORWELL PRIZEFINALIST FOR THE PETERSON LITERARY PRIZEA revelatory eyewitness account of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and heroism of the Ukrainian resistance by Pulitzer Prize finalist Yaroslav Trofimov, the chief foreign-affairs correspondent for The Wall Street Journal.----‘A stunning work of eyewitness reportage and literary nuance. Clear-eyed, memorable. An instant classic’ STEVE COLL, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Ghost Wars‘Brilliant and stirring. By layering detail upon telling detail, Trofimov builds up a vivid picture of how the men and women of Ukraine repulsed the Russian blitzkrieg with cleverness and courage’ Economist‘For verve, knowledge and detail Trofimov can seldom be beaten and his writing is rich in local colour’ The Times‘Part war correspondence, part road trip. Captures some of the most difficult, gruesome stories of the war. Those details are so intense that they sharpen everything around them’ Washington Post‘A fast-paced, unflinching witness narrative of the war’s first year, perceptive in its accounts of Russian overconfidence and the inventive, makeshift ways in which Ukrainians fought back against a larger force invading on three fronts’ Financial Times‘Achieves the highest level of war reporting: a tough, detailed account that nevertheless reads like a great novel’ SEBASTIAN JUNGER, bestselling author of The Perfect StormYaroslav Trofimov, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, 2023 and 2022

20 November 1979: as morning prayers began, hundreds of hardline Islamist gunmen, armed with rifles smuggled in coffins, stormed the Grand Mosque in Mecca. With thousands of terrified worshippers trapped inside, the result was a bloody siege that lasted two weeks, caused hundreds of deaths, prompted an international diplomatic crisis and unleashed forces that would eventually lead to the rise of al Qaeda.Journalist Yaroslav Trofimov takes us day-by-day through one of the most momentous – and heavily censored – events in recent history, interviewing many direct participants in the siege and drawing on secret documents to reveal the truth about the first operation of modern global jihad.

'No Country for Love is Doctor Zhivago meets Stalingrad - a mix of romantic historical fiction and gritty, reportage-like storytelling... The history is spot-on, going from pre-Communist times, through World War II, to the era of Stalin and after. And the stories it tells of the human heart, through the eyes of its heroine Debora Rosenbaum and those who befriend or betray her, are unforgettable' NPR Best Books of 2024'A captivating sweep of a novel about love, resilience and impossible choices' Christina Lamb, chief foreign correspondent Sunday TimesSeventeen-year-old Debora Rosenbaum, ambitious and in love with literature, arrives in the capital of the new Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Kharkiv, to make her own fate as a modern woman. The stale and forbidding ways of the past are out; 1930 is a new dawn, the Soviet era, where skyscrapers go up overnight. Debora finds work and meets a dashing young officer named Samuel who is training to become a fighter pilot. They fall in love, and begin to mix with Ukraine's new cultural elite.But Debora's prospects - and Ukraine's - soon dim. State-induced famine rolls through the over-harvested countryside, and any deviation from Moscow-dictated ideology is punished by disappearance. When Samuel is sentenced to ten years' hard labour, Debora is left on her own with a baby. And this is only the beginning. As advancing Nazi armies move through Ukraine during World War II, its yellow fields of wheat run red with blood. Forced to renounce the man she loves, her identity and even her name, Debora also learns to endure, manipulate and resist.No Country for Love follows the hard choices Debora makes as Ukraine, caught between two totalitarian ideologies, turns into the deadliest place in the world - while she tries to protect those she loves most.A sweeping, stunningly ambitious novel about a young Ukrainian girl arriving in Kharkiv in 1930, determined to contribute to the future of her country, and her struggle to survive the devastation and trauma that ravage Ukraine.

'An expansive novel reminiscent of the literary breadth, humanity, and historical depth found in Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate' Christophe Boltanski, winner of the 2015 Prix Femina for The Safe House'A captivating sweep of a novel about love, resilience and impossible choices... I loved it!' Christina Lamb, chief foreign correspondent Sunday TimesSeventeen-year-old Debora Rosenbaum, ambitious and in love with literature, arrives in the capital of the new Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Kharkiv, 1930, to make her own fate as a modern woman. The stale and forbidding ways of the past are out; it's a new dawn, the Soviet era, where skyscrapers go up overnight. Debora finds work and meets a dashing young officer named Samuel who is training to become a fighter pilot. They fall in love, and begin to mix with Ukraine's new cultural elite.But Debora's prospects - and Ukraine's - soon dim. State-induced famine rolls through the over-harvested countryside, and any deviation from Moscow-dictated ideology is punished by disappearance. When Samuel is sentenced to ten years' hard labour, Deborah is left on her own with a baby. And this is only the beginning.As advancing Nazi armies move through Ukraine during World War II, its yellow fields of wheat run red with blood. Forced to renounce the man she loves, her identity and even her name, Debora also learns to endure, manipulate and resist.No Country for Love follows the hard choices Debora makes as Ukraine, caught between two totalitarian ideologies, turns into the deadliest place in the world - and she tries to protect those she loves most.A sweeping, stunningly ambitious novel about a young Ukrainian girl arriving in Kharkiv in 1930, determined to contribute to the future of her country, and her struggle to survive the devastation and trauma that ravage Ukraine.

'A captivating sweep of a novel about love, resilience and impossible choices' Christina Lamb, chief foreign correspondent Sunday Times'An unflinching look at the cost of survival in terrible circumstances, which has sad echoes in modern-day Ukraine' The TimesSeventeen-year-old Debora Rosenbaum, ambitious and in love with literature, arrives in the capital of the new Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Kharkiv. The stale and forbidding ways of the past are out; 1930 is a new dawn, the Soviet era, where skyscrapers go up overnight. Debora finds work and meets a dashing young officer named Samuel who is training to become a fighter pilot. But Debora's prospects - and Ukraine's - soon dim. State-induced famine rolls through the depleted countryside, and any deviation from Moscow ideology is punished by disappearance. When Samuel is sentenced to ten years' hard labour, Debora is left on her own with a baby. As advancing Nazi armies move through Ukraine, its yellow fields of wheat run red with blood. Forced to renounce the man she loves, her identity and even her name, Debora also learns to endure, manipulate and resist.No Country for Love follows the hard choices Debora makes as Ukraine, caught between two totalitarian ideologies, turns into the deadliest place in the world - while she tries to protect those she loves most.'Doctor Zhivago meets Stalingrad - a mix of romantic historical fiction and gritty, reportage-like storytelling... The history is spot-on, going from pre-Communist times, through World War II, to the era of Stalin and after. And the stories it tells of the human heart, through the eyes of its heroine Debora Rosenbaum and those who befriend or betray her, are unforgettable' NPR Best Books of the Year