Life in Spite of Everything: Tales from the Ukrainian East

A cultural portrait of eastern Ukraine, and an urgent, essential read.

Since the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine in 2014, its eastern region – Donbas – has been synonymous with conflict. With the escalation of that war in 2022, its cities such as Bakhmut and Lysychansk have become familiar to us through the images and reports of brutal devastation. Victoria Donovan excavates a rich, multicultural history of this area, and paints a radically different picture.

Travelling from the dramatic, jagged peaks of Bilokuzmynivka to the marshland of Mariupol, from a warehouse rave to an abandoned gypsum mine, the physical world and its importance to this region’s identity is brought to vivid life. But above all else, by speaking to those whose lives are embedded there now – curators, artists, railway workers, young people who have grown up amidst instability and destruction – Donovan amplifies local voices and reveals the intensely personal lived reality of Putin’s war.

Revelatory, evocative and deeply humane, Life In Spite of Everything is a celebration of a country’s past and present, and its people’s tenacity, creativity and independence.

‘This land and life are so beautifully remembered! . . . An emotional and very engaging requiem for Eastern Ukraine.’ Andrey Kurkov

‘Victoria Donovan writes . . . with love, knowledge, and care. Written about humans for humans, this book exposes the inhumanity of imperial ambitions and colonial wars like no other work on the subject.’ Serhii Plokhy

‘Interlacing histories and stories, meticulous research and the power of witnessing, Life in Spite of Everything enriches our understanding of the past of Ukraine’s east. One day, it will help us reimagine its future.’ Sasha Dovzhyk

‘An invaluable document and an urgent plea – a love letter to a place and a community worth protecting at all costs.’ Boris Dralyuk