Ukrainian author Artem Chapeye has lived many lives: journalist, activist, translator, and since the spring of 2022, a soldier in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Being a writer helps him to “endure everyday army life,” he said in an interview in June 2023, but “until everything is finished, it is very difficult to write something” about Russia’s full-scale invasion. Upon original publication, “The Ukraine” was soon included on lists of the best books of the year by BBC Ukraine, Ukrainian Book Institute, and PEN Ukraine.