Some Book Recommendations

We would like to list here some books you might find interesting – to read or to give as a cherished present. Check here for books in German.

In English, there is now quite a collection of books. Please check those published by the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute (where you can also rent book on their website as a PDF or HTML text version, and save money and trees) and Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press (CIUS Press), whose primary focus is on new and original scholarship and research in English on Ukrainian history, language, literature, contemporary Ukraine, and Ukrainians in Canada. CIUS Press also occasionally publishes English translations of Ukrainian scholarship and belles-lettres and monographs and memoirs in Ukrainian.

Ukraine/ World:

History of Ukraine/ Russo-Ukrainian War

Novels

Poetry/ Drama

Ukrainian culture

  • Treasures of Ukraine. A Nation’s Cultural Heritage. Thames & Hudson, 2022, ISBN: 9780500026038. By Andrey Kurkov, Andriy Puchkov, Christian Raffensperger, Diana Klochko, Maksym Yaremenko, Alisa Lozhkina, Myroslava M. Mudrak, Oleksandr Soloviev, Victoria Burlaka. All proceeds will be donated to PEN Ukraine, to help Ukrainian authors in need and support museums in Ukraine.
  • Music:
  • Visual Art:
    • Alla Horska, Rodovid, 2024, ISBN: 978-617-7482-63-4. This publication features over a hundred original works by Alla Horska, showcased at the “Alla Horska: The Kestrel” exhibition on display at the Ukrainian House from March 15 to April 28, 2024. The artworks have been loaned from museums and private collections. This artist’s monograph continues the exploration initiated by Horska’s exhibition. The book includes essays on Alla Horska, a distinguished figure among the Ukrainian Sixtiers, delving into her diverse interests and the turbulent context of her era and environment, written by historian Radomyr Mokryk, art critic Liza Yelyzaveta German, theater researcher Hanna Veselovska, art historian and essayist Diana Klochko, and journalist and art historian Oksana Semenik. Olena Grozovska, an art historian, provided an introduction on behalf of the curatorial group. Olena Zaretska, Horska’s granddaughter and founder of the Alla Horska and Viktor Zaretskyi Foundation, contributed the artist’s biography. The compilation of the publication is credited to Anastasia Yatskovska, with design by Dasha Podoltseva. 
    • In the Eye of the Storm. Modernism in Ukraine, 1900–1930s. Eds. Konstantin Akinsha, Katia Denysova, Olena Kashuba-Volvach. Thames & Hudson, 2022, ISBN: 9780500297155. Published to accompany the Royal Academy exhibition from 29 June to 13 October 2024, a major study of Ukrainian art from 1900 to the mid-1930s – with loans from major museums in Ukraine, elsewhere in Europe, the United States (including MoMA) and Israel. Twelve internationally renowned scholars, including curators from the National Art Museum of Ukraine, bring to life this astonishing period of creativity in Ukraine and all the movements it encompassed.
    • The Art of Ukraine. By Alisa Lozhkina. Thames & Hudson, 2024, ISBN-10: 0500297789. ISBN-13: 9780500297780. This new volume in the World of Art series provides an overview of Ukrainian art, artists, and art movements from the dawn of modernism and the 1900s to the Soviet period, to post-Soviet times and the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022. Ukrainian art and artists are discussed within historical and political contexts as well as how they have contributed to, and interacted with, Ukrainian culture and identity. Filled with rich illustrations, each chapter explores a different art period or movement.
  • Ukrainian cuisine:

Compiled by Dr Oksana Seumenicht, DUAG co-founder