Pinkham has a gift for bringing the people she encounters into colorful focus.Įssential reading for anyone who cares about Ukraine, anyone who’s wondering if they should care about Ukraine, and anyone who happens to like nonfiction narratives told in a human voice.Įssential reading. She is intimate, sincere, and unpretentious-the perfect cultural commentator.Įngrossing. is a unique and fascinating guide to the post-Soviet generation…honest, clear, and deeply humane. Andrew Meier - New York Times Book Review

lively memoir about traveling in post-Soviet Ukraine…passionate and persuasive.Īffecting…Pinkham has an eye for the elegiac. This intimate portrait of contemporary Ukraine gracefully combines history, political analysis, and memoir… eye for the idiosyncrasies of post-Soviet life and language is special. These fascinating personalities, rendered in a bold, original style, deliver an indelible impression of a country on the brink.īlack Square is necessary reading for anyone who wishes to learn the roots of the current Russo-Ukrainian war and the stories of the people who live it every day. She meets-among others-a charismatic doctor helping to smooth the transition to democracy even as he struggles with drug dependence a band of Ukrainian, Russian, and Belarusian hippies in a Crimean idyll and a Jewish clarinetist agitating for Ukrainian liberation. With a keen eye for the dark absurdities of post-Soviet society, Pinkham presents a dynamic account of contemporary Ukrainian life. Sophie Pinkham saw all this and more during ten years in Ukraine and Russia, a period that included the Maidan revolution of 2013–14, Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and the ensuing war in Donbass. A distinctive writer’s fascinating journey into the heart of a troubled region, tracing the origins of the war that is now tearing Europe apart.Įach time Ukraine has rebuilt itself over the last century, it has been plagued by the same conflicts: corruption, poverty, and, most of all, Russian aggression.

Black Square by Sophie Pinkham