Kateryna Pylypchuk

At 5:08 a.m. on February 24, 2022, Kateryna woke up in Kyiv to the sound of bombing. This marked the end of her world, work plans and ideas, travels … All that remained was to save herself and her children. The inevitable changes, which shook something deep and significant within her, became an impetus to write about what had caused her and all Ukrainians so much pain. She wrote, one after another, novellas, poems, and essays that reflect the story of the war during the first months of Russia’s full-scale invasion. This book contains words woven with emotions and experiences of ordinary people who have become heroes. The main goal of this collection is to help people all over the world better understand what each Ukrainian felt and how this war changed us all.

Kateryna Pylypchuk is a Ukrainian writer and poet with higher degrees in law and organizational management. Since 2011, she has been a leader of the Ukrainian chapter of the International Real Estate Federation and lecturer in business modeling. Pylypchuk has her own literary blog. Her works have been recognized by different competitions and published in various almanacs. She resides in Ukraine with her family and can be contacted at katiapylypchuk@gmail.com.

“It is hard to read about the war, especially if you face it daily. But with this fantastic book, it’s different. I read it in one breath, and it impacted me deeply. Each of the short novels describes the experience of brave Ukrainians dealing with the war, in Ukraine and abroad. I recommend this book to those who want to understand what Ukraine and Ukrainians are all about and how the war has or has not changed us.”—Olha Shvydenko, Researcher, National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine