Grey Bees: A captivating, heartwarming story about a gentle beekeeper caught up in the war in Ukraine

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Andrey Kurkov (Andrej Kurkow, Andreï Kourkov, Андрей Юрьевич Курков) was born in Leningrad in 1961 and now lives in Kiev. There are snipers around, and the occasional shelling, but, exercising some caution, the two remaining inhabitants manage to continue with their lives here -- if in fairly limited fashion. Gerade für eine Person wie mich, die sich nie zuvor mit der Ukraine beschäftigt hat und diesen Krieg, der nun in der gesamten Ukraine herrscht, überhaupt nicht versteht, war dieser Roman genau die richtige Lektüre. In diesem Streifen liegt Sergejs Dorf, die Kirche zerschossen, Bombentrichter auf der Straße, verlassen von allen anderen Bewohnern bis auf den schrulligen Paschka, ohne Strom- und Lebensmittelversorgung, abhängig vor gelegentlichen Kohlespenden der Baptisten. With his license and registration still from Soviet times as well, he is at one point even asked: "What, are you still living in the U.

Sergeyich enjoys his stay there and relationship with Galya until the attack on him and his bees by an ex-Ukrainian soldier suffering from PTSD.

Grey Bees is a typical Kurkov novel, grey and melancholy and wistful but not maudlin, and even charming, despite the harsh environment it is set in. Andrej Kurkows Roman "Graue Bienen", aus dem Russischen übersetzt von Johanna Marx und Sabine Grebing, steckt vor allem in seiner ersten Hälfte voller Stille und Unaufgeregtheit.

Sergey Sergeyich, the protagonist of Grey Bees, lives in Little Starhorodivka, a village in the 'grey zone' of the Ukrainian Donbas, the no-man's land between the fighting forces of the Ukrainian military and the separatists fronting for Russia. Wherever this wisdom was visible and comprehensible to him, he would compare its manifestations with human life—always to the detriment to the latter. This is a parable where our modern world is juxtaposed with the natural world of bees and ants, in favour of the animal world, which is organised, cooperative and highly functional.

But this warmth and good feeling all around doesn’t mean that the realities of war are not gone into; while they mostly take place on the sidelines or in the background, they are very much there. Dubious female characters in this one, but apart from that: a wonderful book, I recommend you read it. As Pashka tells him in a dream about the war ending, it ‘ doesn’t matter’ which side wins ‘ main thing is victory – the war’s over! Die Schüsse und Einschläge sind Hintergrundgeräusche im Leben der beiden Männer, sie haben sich damit arrangiert. Es ist ein dünn besiedeltes Gebiet in dem sich das fiktive Dorf befindet, in dem nur noch zwei Männer geblieben sind.