Arabesques
Ukraine

Arabesques

by Serhiy Zhadan

War & Conflict Fiction Short Stories 2026

Summary

Set in Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine, during Russia’s full-scale invasion, Arabesques is a collection of interconnected stories about ordinary people trying to preserve their humanity in extraordinary circumstances. Through intimate snapshots of daily life, Serhiy Zhadan portrays a city transformed by war, where familiar routines have been disrupted by bombardment, loss, and the constant threat of death.

The characters navigate weddings, love affairs, funerals, and reunions with loved ones returning from the front. Volunteers deliver humanitarian aid, families struggle to protect elderly relatives, and wounded soldiers attempt to rebuild their lives. Their experiences reveal the fragile connections that sustain communities even as violence reshapes the world around them.

Returning to characters and settings from his earlier works, including Mesopotamia and The Orphanage, Zhadan captures both the vulnerability and quiet resilience of Ukrainian society. With understated compassion, he explores grief, solidarity, memory, and the persistence of everyday life amid destruction. Arabesques is a powerful literary portrait of a community determined to endure.

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About the author
Serhiy Zhadan
Serhiy Zhadan

Serhiy Zhadan is a Ukrainian poet, novelist, translator, musician, and civic activist, born in 1974 in Starobilsk, in eastern Ukraine. He studied Ukrainian-German philology and completed postgraduate research on Ukrainian avant-garde poet Mykhailo Semenko. Since the early 1990s, Zhadan has been a prominent figure in the cultural life of Kharkiv, the city where he has lived and worked for much of his adult life. His writing captures the experiences of post-Soviet Ukraine, particularly the lives of young people and marginalised communities navigating political upheaval, economic hardship, and social change. His acclaimed novels include Voroshilovgrad (published in English as The Orphanage is a different work; Voroshilovgrad has also appeared in English under its original title), Depeche Mode, Mesopotamia, and The Orphanage. His poetry collections include The Life of Maria, Templars, and Antenna. Known for his energetic language, dark humour, and vivid depictions of eastern Ukrainian life, Zhadan blends the personal with the political. His work has received numerous international honours, including the Jan Michalski Prize for Literature, the Brücke Berlin Prize, and the 2022 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. In 2025, he received Austria’s State Prize for European Literature. Alongside his literary career, Zhadan is the frontman of the bands Zhadan and the Dogs and Mannerheim Line. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he has also been active in humanitarian volunteering and, in 2024, joined the Ukrainian military.

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Details
Published
2026
Author
Serhiy Zhadan