Tag: 2024

December 2, 2024

TORONTO, NEW YORK, WASHINGTON, LONDON, KYIV – Yaroslav Trofimov has won the 2024 Peterson Literary Prize for his book Our Enemies Will Vanish: The Russian Invasion and Ukraine’s War of Independence (Penguin Press). The winner was announced at the Peterson Literary Fund’s awards gala held in the Guildhall of the historic Old Mill Toronto on November 30, 2024.

The winner is awarded $25,000 and the book’s publisher receives $5,000. 

The Peterson Literary Prize for nonfiction is a biennial international prize that recognizes the best books, written in English or Ukrainian, that promote a better understanding of Ukraine-related topics relevant to a global audience. 

Our Enemies Will Vanish was one of six books shortlisted for this year’s Peterson Literary Prize. Shortlisted finalists each receive $5,000.

In his book, author Yaroslav Trofimov, chief foreign-affairs correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, gives a riveting account of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the heroism of the  Ukrainian resistance. 

Trofimov spent months at the heart of the conflict, tracing the war’s key moments—from the battle for Kyiv to the grueling battles with the Wagner Group over Bakhmut. The story of the epic bravery of the Ukrainian people is also deeply personal for the author, who grew up in Kyiv, where his family has lived for generations. 

The selection of this year’s literary-prize winner and shortlist were made by members of the jury comprised of Canadian political scientist and jury chair Lisa Shymko, returning jurors Nadia Gereliouk, author and political scientist Alexander Motyl, literary scholar Marko Robert Stech, as well as British-born journalist Askold Krushelnycky. 

According to Lisa Shymko, chair of the Peterson Literary Fund jury, “Trofimov’s book is exceptional” because it transports the reader from the corridors of power to the gritty trenches of the frontline.” Our Enemies Will Vanish is a powerful account of Ukraine’s fight for survival and its refusal to surrender, which Shymko says impressed jurors with its “meticulous detail from both the human and geopolitical context.”

About the Peterson Literary Fund:                

The Peterson Literary Fund was established by Canadian philanthropist Stanley Peterson, whose dream was to create a literary fund with Ukrainian roots and a global reach. The fund operates under the auspices of the Toronto-based BCU Foundation. The fund encourages publications that confront disinformation and dismantle Russian colonial narratives. In addition to its cornerstone literary prize, the fund offers translated book awards as well as grant programs for writers, translators, and publishers. 

John Sweeney – Author
Transworld. Imprint – Bantam — Publisher

A gripping and explosive account of Vladimir Putin’s tyranny, charting his rise from spy to tsar, exposing the events that led to his invasion of Ukraine and his assault on Europe.

In Killer in the Kremlin, award-winning journalist John Sweeney takes readers from the heart of Putin’s Russia to the killing fields of Chechnya, to the embattled cities of an invaded Ukraine.

In a disturbing exposé of Putin’s sinister ambition, Sweeney draws on thirty years of his own reporting – from the Moscow apartment bombings to the atrocities committed by the Russian Army in Chechnya, to the annexation of Crimea and a confrontation with Putin over the shooting down of flight MH17 – to understand the true extent of Putin’s long war.

Drawing on eyewitness accounts and compelling testimony from those who have suffered at Putin’s hand, we see the heroism of the Russian opposition, the bravery of the Ukrainian resistance, and the brutality with which the Kremlin responds to such acts of defiance, assassinating or locking away its critics, and stopping at nothing to achieve its imperialist aims.

In the midst of one of the darkest acts of aggression in modern history -Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – this book shines a light on Putin’s rule and poses urgent questions about how the world must respond.

‘No one in the world will forgive you for killing peaceful people.’ – VOLODYMYR ZELENSKIY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE

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Bogdan Logvynenko – Author
Ukraїner — Publisher

The importance and timeliness of this book lie in the opportunity to give a voice to the people who survived the Russian occupation. In the foreword, human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk writes, “It often lacks resonance against the backdrop of statements by politicians who suggest handing over the occupied territories to the aggressor country and satisfying its imperial appetites. The voice of the survivors makes such appeals immoral.”

Each story has its own narrator, people who agreed to describe their experiences. Alongside the eyewitness accounts of shelling, torture, and atrocities committed by the occupiers against civilians, there are life-affirming stories about saving an old oak tree, resistance to the Russians, and happy moments of liberation. After all, as one of the book’s heroes said, “We hear cannonades, but my heart is calm: these are Ukrainians.”

”De-occupation” differs visually from the rest of our books by the publishing house, as the photographs in it are in black and white and carry an additional emotional impact. At the same time, this makes the book more affordable for the general public. The publication is part of a multimedia project, so all the photos can be viewed in colour on the website, and you can also watch videos from the expedition if you like.

The book’s title and headings are set in the Volja font by Ukrainian type designer and graphic arts researcher Marcela Mozhyna. She created it as a tribute to the work of Nil Khasevych, a famous graphic artist of the mid-20th century who is considered the chief artist of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.

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Yaroslav Trofimov – Author

Penguin Adult / Penguin Press (imprint) — Publisher

Our Enemies Will Vanish is a revelatory eyewitness account of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the heroism of the Ukrainian people in their resistance, written by Yaroslav Trofimov, the chief foreign-affairs correspondent for The Wall Street Journal.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Yaroslav Trofimov has spent months on end at the heart of the conflict, very often on its front lines. In this authoritative account, he traces the war’s decisive moments—from the battle for Kyiv to more recently the gruelling and bloody arm wrestle involving the Wagner group over Bakhmut—to show how Ukraine and its allies have turned the tide against Russia, one of the world’s great military powers, in a modern-day battle of David and Goliath. Putin had intended to conquer and annex Ukraine with a vicious blitzkrieg, redrawing the map of Europe in a few short weeks with seismic geopolitical consequences. But in the face of this existential threat, the Ukrainian people fought back, turning what looked like certain defeat into a great moral victory, even as the territorial battle continues to see-saw to this day. This is the story of the epic bravery of the Ukrainian people—people Trofimov knows very well.

For Trofimov, this war is deeply personal. He grew up in Kyiv, and his family has lived there for generations. With deep empathy and local understanding, Trofimov tells the story of how everyday Ukrainian citizens—doctors, computer programmers, businesspeople, and schoolteachers—risked their lives and lost loved ones. He blends their brave and tragic stories with expert military analysis, providing unique insight into the thinking of Ukrainian leadership and mapping out the decisive stages of what has become a perilous war for Ukraine, the Putin regime, and indeed, the world.

This brutal, catastrophic struggle is unfolding on another continent, but the United States and its NATO allies have become deeply implicated. As the war drags on, it threatens to engulf the world. We cannot look away. At once heartbreaking and inspiring, Our Enemies Will Vanish is a riveting, vivid, and firsthand account of the Ukrainian refusal to surrender. It is the story of ordinary people fighting not just for their homes and their families but for justice and democracy itself.

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Myroslav Laiuk – Author

Ukraїner — Publisher

During the most intense fighting for Bakhmut in the winter and in March 2023, the author spent days and nights with Ukrainian infantrymen and artillerymen, medics and chaplains, rescuers and children who remained in the city and its surroundings, where artillery shelling and street battles were a constant. It’s a story about the anti-aircraft gunner who has just shot down a Russian fighter jet, father and sons fighting side by side, and a member of Wagner who cherishes Nabokov. It’s a journey to places where dogs feast on the dead, where you are petrified by fear and desolation but also stunned with courage, resilience and even love. There, you see everything with a clarity as sharp as that from new spectacles. This vividness begs a question of whether there is room for nuance. Or is the pursuit of nuance merely the privilege of those who don’t fight for their very life and existence here and now? But also, whether the survivors are obliged to pursue this nuance? In his stories, the author opts for the fixation method, «photographing» with the text. The word «fixation» will be used in different meanings throughout the text. «Blending a poet’s skill with committed war reporting, Myroslav Laiuk illuminates the details, images, and personalities of war the way only a poet can. He re-discovers Ukraine for the reader, making the neglected loved.»

Peter Pomerantsev, British journalist and writer, author of the books «Nothing Is True, and Everything Is Possible» and «This is not Propaganda.»
«Each participant in the war forges their own path. Frequently, these paths are off-road, marred by potholes and rough asphalt. Myroslav has succeeded in gathering and conveying the profound anguish embedded in the stories of each of his characters. It is through books like this that entire generations will come to understand the monumental struggles of the Ukrainian armed forces.»

Evgeniy Maloletka, Associated Press photojournalist, Pulitzer Prize winner

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Mikhail Zygar – Author

SIMON & SCHUSTER (Scribner imprint) — Publisher

From one of Russia’s smartest and best-sourced young journalists comes the first work by a Russian author that reveals his country’s history of oppressing Ukraine, blames Russian culture for the war, and dismantles the imperial narrative that Putin used to justify a brutal invasion.

As soon as Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, independent Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar circulated a petition that was signed first by prominent Russian writers, artists, and filmmakers, and then by thousands of others. Russian soon enacted strict new censorship laws, and Zygar was forced to leave his country. In his time as a journalist, he has interviewed Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and has had access to many of the major players in both countries, from ploticians to oligarchs. As an expert on Vladimir Putin’s behavior, he has spent years studying the Kremlin’s plan for Ukraine, and here, in clear, chronological order, he explains the nationalist myths and legends Russia has exploited to justify savagely invading its independent neighboring country.

Drawing on literature, formal histories, and his own reporting, Zygar details Ukraine’s rise to nationhood, from its ancient origins as a culturally and politically distinct region, often in direct conflict with Moscow, to a Soviet-controlled state that suffered terribly at the hands of Nazi soldiers in World War II and, before that, from Stalin’s forced-starvation policies in the 1930’s. Following the fall of the USSR, Ukraine emerged first as a post-Soviet oligarchic state and then as a progressive nation with increasing economic, cultural, and political ties to Europe and the US.

Of particular note is Zygar’s step-by-step account of the rise of Zelensky as a popular comic and television personality to a resolute symbol of Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion. Zelensky’s ascent came as new generation of Ukrainians, having grown up in an independent country, did not consider themselves to be part of Russia — a tipping point that led to war, as Putin could not tolerate losing Ukraine forever.

Authoritative and timely, this vital account is an unprecedented historical overview of the war that affects us all and continues to threaten the future of the entire world as we know it.

Awards achieve

Luke Harding – Author

Faber & Faber – Publisher

The first book of reportage from the front line of the Ukraine war. This is a powerful and moving first draft of history written by the award-winning Guardian journalist and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Collusion and Shadow State, who forecast Putin’s dark adventurist ambitions.

Shortlisted for the 2023 Orwell Prize Journalism Book of the Year 2023 in Ukraine

For months, the omens had pointed in one scarcely believable direction: Russia was about to invade Ukraine. And yet, the world was stunned by the epochal scale of the assault that began in February 2022. It was an attempt by one nation to devour another.

Invasion is Luke Harding’s compelling chronicle of the war that changed everything. For this breathtaking work of reportage, he spent months reporting on the ground during the build-up to the conflict and afterward; his book tells of the initial days of shock and panic, the grim reality of this ongoing war, and the unheard human stories behind the headlines. Invasion also offers insightful portraits of the war’s two great personalities. One, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, is an actor-turned-president who rallied support on a global stage. The other, Vladimir Putin, is a dictator who dwells in a strange and unreachable realm. Harding examines the ideological, religious and personal reasons behind Putin’s decision to invade. And he confronts a crucial question: which side will prevail in this terrible war?

With the ripple effects of the largest armed conflict in Europe since 1945 already being felt beyond Ukraine and Russia’s borders, it is more vital than ever to understand how the situation on the front line will have profound effects for us all. Written in Luke Harding’s starkly transfixing style, Invasion makes for essential reading.

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