Diary of an Invasion

Dispatches from a nation under siege, from the winner of the NBCC Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize for Grey Bees.

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, novelist and journalist Andrey Kurkov was forced to flee his hometown of Kyiv. This journal is a harrowing record of the months leading up to and after the invasion, as Kurkov and his family migrate to western Ukraine for shelter. Surrounded by others fleeing violence, he pens incisive dispatches on the latest border conflicts and bombardments, and the shifts and schisms inside Ukrainian social and political life. These wartime entries ruminate on Ukraine’s historic past and possibilities for its future.

An avid political commentator, Kurkov has written for prominent English newspapers, delivered lectures, and been interviewed across Europe on the war in Ukraine. Now with an introduction by Financial Times  Ukraine correspondent Christopher Miller and a 2025 afterword from the author reflecting on the years that have elapsed since the war began, Dairy of an Invasion  is a deeply affecting glimpse into the day-to-day realities of millions.