Rock, Paper, Grenade

By: Chekh, Artem

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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 164421427X
• ISBN13: 9781644214275
• Release Date: March 2025
• Publisher: Seven Stories Press
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.81 lbs.