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Oleksandr Mykhed
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The Language of War Paperback – June 13, 2024

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 24 ratings
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When everyday life becomes a state of emergency, how can yesterday’s words suffice?

‘We were so happy and didn’t know it…’A thirty-three-year-old writer lives in a quiet European suburb with his wife and his dog. His parents have bought an apartment nearby. On weekends they go out for brunch, cook and see friends. Life is good; it is normal. Then the invaders come.The Language of War is about what happens when your world changes overnight. When you wake up to the sound of helicopters and the smell of gunpowder. When your home is hit by shells or broken into by gunmen, and you spend another night in a basement-turned-bomb shelter. When, even though you’ve never held a weapon before, you realise the only choice is to fight back. It is about things one can never forget, or forgive.Bringing together Oleksandr Mykhed’s vivid day-by-day chronicles of the invasion of Ukraine with a chorus of other voices – his family, friends in exile, those who have fought and have witnessed unimaginable atrocities – this book is both a record, and a reckoning. Haunting and timeless, it asks how it is possible to find the words to describe a new reality; how you can still make sense of the world when the only language you can speak is the language of war.
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  1. Print length
    280 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Allen Lane
  4. Publication date
    June 13, 2024
  5. Dimensions
    5.31 x 0.91 x 8.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0241690846
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0241690840
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Allen Lane (June 13, 2024)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 280 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0241690846
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0241690840
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.9 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.31 x 0.91 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 24 ratings

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Oleksandr Mykhed

Oleksandr Mykhed

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
24 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Oleksii
5.0 out of 5 stars A great book!
Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2024
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It’s a hard read and a VERY important one!
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Strobel
5.0 out of 5 stars The true language of war
Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2024
Imagine enjoying an evening dinner party with good friends. You own a comfortable apartment, have a loving spouse, and are building a career as a well-respected writer. Suddenly, almost everything that you hold dear is taken away. A genocidal Russia has invaded your homeland and is destroying and defiling everything that you love. Your life is now compressed into a single grab bag of the most basic necessities. Now imagine that storyline repeated for the forty million inhabitants of Ukraine. Imagine that storyline repeated in all of the senseless wars that engulf our world.

Oleksandr Mykhed’s “The Language of War,” tells his personal story, as well as the stories of his family, friends, and countrymen, over the course of the first year of Russia’s war in Ukraine. I found the book to be a very moving account of the horrors of Russia’s war and of the pain of uncertainty, worry, and loss, as the reality that life will never return to “your old normal” hits home.

Yet, I also found the book to be hopeful. One of the most powerful things that author Mykhed writes is of the enduring importance of community—strangers helping strangers through the most difficult of times. Adults helping children who are not their own. Average people standing side-by-side as they defend their country from annihilation.

This book is a must read for everyone who values life and freedom. Reading it will also help those who are uninformed to understand what is at stake today in Ukraine.
3 people found this helpful
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Ashley Nikolenko
5.0 out of 5 stars Heartbreaking and alive
Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2024
This book will shake you to the core. I cannot recommend it enough.
5 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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CSG
5.0 out of 5 stars Raw, painful, necessary
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 13, 2024
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Oleksander Mykhed is a friend of a friend; I know what he and his family have been through and have met dozens with similar fates, and I am eternally grateful to him for having had the presence of mind to write this book, to find the words with which to express the living nightmare Ukrainians have had to endure for so long now. The detailed depiction of atrocities and the unutterable lived experiences of war must be understood through Mykhed's lens or else there can't be any understanding of the realities and consequences of war at all - and where does that leave us in terms of negotiating a kind of peace? Anyone claiming that Putin 'has a point' wants to have their head examined. This is a masterwork in all its brutal honesty and rage, and Mykhed did well in not concealing his rage. There are situations in life that shouldn't be made more palatable to outsiders. We all need to know what's going on - and how horrifying it feels when maniacs run countries.
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Jef Boden
5.0 out of 5 stars la douleur de la langue de guerre
Reviewed in France on July 26, 2024
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La guerre, même quand on veut l’appeler une opération militaire spéciale nous a déjà apporté un grand nombre de livres. Ce livre d’Oleksandr Mykhed est absolument un des plus forts.
Le premier jour de l’invasion l’auteur ne peut s’empêcher de noter l’attaque de l’aéroport de Hostomel. Ses parents vivent à Bucha et y restent pendant l’occupation russe. Après quelques jours l’auteur s’est présenté à l’armée ukrainienne. Il continue à écrire mais il constate que l’écriture et la langue ont changé. Il doit chercher une langue de la guerre.
Bien sûr il n’y a pas que le choix des mots, les mensonges ou la question de cacher la réalité par le langage obligatoirement moralisatuer de la russie. Il décrit la nouvelle vie. Même les enfants ne sont plus les mêmes: leur langage et leurs jeux ont changé. Il compare cette situation à celle de la Seconde Guerre mondiale ou du Vietnam.
Il laisse parler ses amis et sa famille. Il décrit et avoue que l’écriture de fiction est devenue pratiquement impossible. Ce témoignage est un puzzle qui devient de plus en plus époustouflant.
Comme il dit: le langage de guerre est celui qui lutte contre le besoin de parler des amis, de sa famille ou des compagnons d’armes au passé.
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JPVegan4Ukr
5.0 out of 5 stars Personal, raw and real look into random, wild and confusing thoughts in a country under attack
Reviewed in Germany on July 25, 2024
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A peak inside the head of the authors wandering thoughts during the full scale war by Russia on the people of Ukraine. You can read the news about atrocities, bombardments and front line events elsewhere, in this book you can read what goes on in the mind of an author normally not writing about politics and current affairs. Its at times chaotic, like war is, angry like war would make one, incredibly sad and sometimes funny too. I am well informed in the ins and outs of the war and involved through supporting Ukraine, but this book gave me a fresh perspective into the human experience of it all.
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Vasyl
5.0 out of 5 stars Buy if you want to deep dive into the Ukraine story
Reviewed in Belgium on July 7, 2024
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A very good book!
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Zeb
5.0 out of 5 stars "Black squares on your avatars will not destroy the dictatorship"
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 14, 2024
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The paperback copy I received is identical to the pictures shown by the publisher in the listing.

The harder part is to try and summarise the huge range of emotions Oleksandr Mykhed's writing brings and evokes. From the short angry paragraphs, questioning those who turn a blind eye to what russians are doing in Ukraine, to the longer, heartbreaking, search for the right words to answer a journalist's clumsy, thoughtless, questions about loss. The short entries written in a barracks and the longer sections narrated by the author's friends, giving different perspectives from their personal experiences. At the heart of it is love, for family and friends and neighbours, and home, and culture and literature and language itself.

I did not put this down for the couple of days since receiving it. I'm glad it's been made available in English.
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