Rock, Paper, Grenade

Ukrainian writer and military serviceman Artem Chekh's book was the winner of the 2021 BBC News Ukraine Book of the Year Award and is a gritty and bald bildungsroman, a lilting picaresque of a life lived in the shadow of someone else's war.

Ukrainian writer and military serviceman Artem Chekh's book was the winner of the 2021 BBC News Ukraine Book of the Year Award and is a gritty and bald bildungsroman, a lilting picaresque of a life lived in the shadow of someone else's war.

When Tymofiy is five years old, his small family in Cherkasy, Ukraine grows by one. Not with the birth of a baby sister or brother, but with the appearance of Felix-mentor and tormentor, enemy and friend-Tymofiy's grandmother's sometime-boyfriend. "Who are you?" Felix screams in the depths of a confused and drunken rage at all who cross his path, his memories of the Soviet-Afghan war clouding his eyes and senses. "Who are you?" Tymofiy asks himself as he drifts through the streets of his hometown, searching for love and protection, for a better, happier way of life.

A gritty, realist depiction of Ukraine and the post Soviet world, this book offers an affecting yet honest look into the life of someone suffering from PTSD. It is a story of growing up without much hope for a better future, and yet intense moments of connection and kindness persist. Just when things begin to seem insurmountably dark, a friendship begins, a kind word is said, or a hand reaches out and opens the curtains, letting in a little light.