Lucky Breaks (Ukraine book)

Lucky Breaks (Щасливі падіння) is a short story collection by Ukrainian writer and photographer Yevgenia Belorusets. The book combines text and photography to depict the lives of women whose everyday routines are disrupted by the war in eastern Ukraine.

Awards

• International Literature Award in 2020 (Haus der Kulturen der Welt), for the German translation of the book
• Shortlisted for the Oxford–Weidenfeld Translation Prize in 2023, for Eugene Ostashevsky’s English translation of Lucky Breaks.

Reception

• The book received widespread critical attention in the English-speaking press. In the United Kingdom, it was reviewed as a The Guardian book of the day, with critic Marcel Theroux highlighting the collection's use of fable-like structures and black humour to capture the experience of women caught up in Russian aggression against Ukraine.
• The Straits Times in Singapore called the book a haunting, evocative collection and awarded the Pushkin Press edition four stars.
• The book has also been discussed in critical essays on war literature and gender-based violence. The book has appeared on recommended reading lists of contemporary Ukrainian writing in translation.

References