Disturbing and captivating and moving, and funny all at once, here is a rich polyphonic portrait of Ukraine, a country that is on everyone's mind, in a spritely and informative read. It is a vivid first-hand account of a journey through a contested nation. 'Will someone pay for the spilled blood? No. Nobody.' So wrote Mikhail Bulgakov in Kiev during the turmoil of the Russian Civil War. Since then the borders of Ukraine have shifted constantly, and its people have suffered numerous foreign interventions. The Ukrainian state we know today has existed only since 1991 and what went before remains contested and controversial, both among its people and its neighbours. In simple and vivid prose, Jens Mühling narrates his encounters with nationalists and old communists, Crimean Tatars and Cossacks, smugglers, archaeologists, and soldiers, all of whose views on nationhood and the past could hardly be more different. Black Earth connects all of these stories to provide an unconventional and unfiltered view of Ukraine, a country at the crossroads of Europe and Asia and at the centre of the world's attention. 'There is a shock of pleasure and discovery on every page' The Times review said. 295 page paperback, maps.
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