In this third volume of Andrey Kurkov's war diaries, Ukraine's greatest living writer chronicles the third year of the full-scale Russian invasion from his home in Kyiv and from journeys all over the country - capturing moments of horror, resilience, absurdity and grace with an unmatched clarity. Children on a contested border wear hooded bulletproof vests to school; soldiers write haiku; professional clowns go to war; and the mother of a young soldier killed in battle uses his compensation money to create a rehabilitation centre for veterans. Roses bloom across Ukraine in quiet tribute to a florist and soldier killed in Avdiivka, remembered by those who once bought his flowers.
In Pokrovsk, 7,500 residents refuse to leave a city that no longer exists - their homes obliterated but their will unbroken. And buried beneath a cherry tree, a murdered writer's final diary is recovered, a haunting echo of a silenced voice. From the home front to the trenches, Kurkov captures the rhythms of survival - the quiet rituals, joys, unexpected humour and appalling losses - in a very moving record of national endurance.
Three Years on Fire is a luminous act of remembrance from a writer whose voice stands witness to everything Ukraine has lost - and everything it refuses to give up.
