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 available. 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:

• • Pillars of Ukrainian Literature: Books That Define Our Nation
  • Key Things to Know about the Languages of Ukrainian Literature

History of Ukraine/ History of Russo-Ukrainian War(s)

• • The Unpredictable Past? Reshaping Russian, Ukrainian, and East European Studies. By Volodymyr Kravchenko and Marko Robert Stech. CIUS Press. ISBN: 978-1-894865-69-2. Published in 2024
  • The KGB, Russian Academic Imperialism, Ukraine, and Western Academia, 1946-2024, 1946-2024. By Sergei I. Zhuk. Lexington Books, 978-1-66694-367-2 • Hardback • June 2024/ 978-1-66694-368-9 • eBook • June 2024
  • From Screens to Battlefields: Tracing the Construction of Enemies on Russian Television. Ukrainian Voices Series.  ‎ ibidem; New Edition (1. August 2024).  ISBN-10: ‎ 3838218841/ ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-3838218847
  • The Language of War, by Oleksandr Mykhed. Penguin Books Limited. 2024. ISBN: 9780241690840
  • The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History, by Serhii Plokhy, W. W. Norton & Company 2023 ISBN 978-1324051190
    • See also other books by Serhii Plokhy, the Mykhailo Hrushevsky professor of Ukrainian history at Harvard University, where he also serves as the director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, USA
  • Laboratory of Modernity: Ukraine between Empire and Nation, 1772–1914. By Serhiy Bilenky. ISBN 978-0-2280-1756-1, ISBN 978-0-2280-1757-8. 2023.
    • Awarded the Omeljan Pritsak Book Prize in Ukrainian Studies for a distinguished book in the field of Ukrainian studies (2024)
  • Andrii Portnov, a DUAG member, the co-director of the Viadrina Center of Polish and Ukrainian Studies (VCPU), Germany
    • Omeljan Pritsak and the Intellectual Origins of the Ukrainian “Harvard Miracle”. Series: Harvard Papers in Ukrainian Studies. Forthcoming in summer 2025. This is the first English-language intellectual biography of Omeljan Pritsak, the co-founder of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI) and the first professor of Ukrainian history at Harvard. 
    • Dnipro: An Entangled History of a European City. Academic Studies Press, 2022. Winner of the 2022 Ab Imperio Award for the Best Study in New Imperial History and History of Diversity in Northern Eurasia.
      • Book presentation at the Ukrainian Institute London
  • Ivan Mazepa and the Russian Empire. By Tatiana Tairova-Iakovleva. ISBN 978-0-2280-0174-4. Published: 2020
  • Ukraine’s Nuclear Disarmament. A History, by Yuri Kostenko. Author Speaks about His Book in a Video for the ASEEES 2020 Convention
  • Gwendolyn Sasse, Director, ZOiS/Einstein Professor for the Comparative Study of Democracy and Authoritarianism at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany:
    • Russia’s War Against Ukraine. Wiley & Sons. ISBN-10: ‎ 1509560602. ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1509560608
      • Interview/ Kennan Long View Series
    • The Crimea Question: Identity, Transition, and Conflict. Harvard Series in Ukrainian Studies. ISBN 9781932650129. Publication Date: April 2014
      
  • The Zelensky Effect, by Olga Onuch and Henry E. Hale. Part of the New Perspectives on Eastern Europe and Eurasia series. Olga Onuch is Professor of Comparative and Ukrainian Politics at The University of Manchester, UK. Henry E. Hale is Professor of Political Science and International Affairs and Co-Director of the Program on New Approaches to Research and Security in Eurasia (PONARS Eurasia), The George Washington University, USA.
    • Book launch 

Novels

• • The City, by Valerian Pidmohylnyi (first published in 1928), “a landmark event in the history of Ukrainian literature“
  • The Length of Days. An Urban Ballad, by Volodymyr Rafeyenko

Poetry/ Drama

• • The Voices of Babyn Yar, by Marianna Kiyanovska, recently awarded numerous awards for its translation into English
  • Cassandra.A Dramatic Poem, by Lesia Ukrainka. In October 2022, Live Canon and the Ukrainian Institute London presented the UK premiere of Lesia Ukrainka’s Cassandra at London’s Omnibus Theatre. In March 2023, the production toured to Oxford and Cambridge as
  • part of the UK-Ukraine Season, produced jointly by the British Council and the Ukrainian Institute. (More)

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:
  • Even the Forest Hums: Ukrainian Sonic Archives 1971-1996. The first comprehensive collection of its kind, this album and book explores the flourishing Ukrainian music scene of the late 20th century—much of which was recorded under strict Soviet control.
• 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:
  • The Authentic Ukrainian Kitchen: Recipes from a Native Chef, by Yevhen Klopotenko. Little, Brown Book Group Limited, 14.05.2024. ISBN: 1472148541, 9781472148544
  • Summer Kitchens: Recipes and Reminiscences from Every Corner of Ukraine, by Olia Hercules
  • Black Sea Dispatches and Recipes – Through Darkness and Light, by Caroline Eden. Winner of the Art of Eating Prize 2020; Winner of the Guild of Food Writers’ Best Food Book Award 2019; Winner of the Edward Stanford Travel Food and Drink Book Award 2019; Winner of the John Avery Award at the André Simon Food and Drink Book Awards for 2018

Compiled by Dr Oksana Seumenicht, DUAG co-founder