On a sunny day in 2077 Ihor Haiduk wakes up in his Washington apartment with is lover beside him and a killer drone hovering above his head. Soon he is accused of murder and is fleeing assassins while travelling in an armour-plated limousine from the White House to the Canadian border. He hitches a ride on a hospital aircraft and travels over war-torn Europe with Bozhena, the niece of the president’s aide, who he has been asked to rescue. After leaving Bozhena in Poland, he enters Ukraine illegally to track down his enemies and save Ukraine. Will he managed to find his enemies before they find and kill him? Will he see Bozhena again?

Realm of Darkness is a post apocalyptic, Cossack Western. It considers what could happen in Europe, and indeed the world, when corruption and greed takes over. It is the book Gogol might have written in a fall out shelter after a dose of mescaline.

Dr. Yuriy Shcherbak is a former Ukrainian ambassador and journalist, who became internationally renowned with the publication of his novel ‘Chornobyl’, about the explosion at the nuclear power plant. He was elected a member of the world academy of art and science in 2013.