Required Travel Reading: Books About Ukraine

Books are (sometimes) better than travel. Even with over a year and a half in Ukraine, there’s only so much culture and history and cocktails I had time to soak up. Reading books about Ukraine added dimension that would otherwise have been out of reach – true and fabricated stories that deepened my understanding of the country. Even if you aren’t planning to travel to Ukraine any time soon, these books will crack open the door on what is one of the most complicated stories in European history.

This list only focuses on Ukraine books that I have read. If you have more suggestions, please leave them in the comments! I would love to add titles to my travel reading list. Also, this post contains affiliate links, which means that I receive a small commission off of purchases at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting my work!

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka

A family with fragile ties faces a shakeup when Ukrainian bombshell Valentina shows up ready for a luxurious life in England. Nadezhda has to put aside her tension with her older sister to combat their father’s love-sick stupidity as they try to rid him of the manipulative interloper.

The novel is breezy and wry, but as the family drama spins out, so do secrets of a difficult past that were before Nadezhda’s time. Lewycka deftly combines humor and stark history, slowly revealing to Nadezhda and the reader that even our family can carry personal tragedies we’ve never dreamed of.

Read an excerpt of A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian!

Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer

This is the kind of novel that will rip your insides to shreds with its poetry and tragedy, and you will be sorry when it’s over. With three separate storylines, Everything Is Illuminated sheds light on Ukrainian history and culture from hundreds of years ago to the present. There’s little I can do to explain it, but say that this book was my favorite of the year, impacting me far more than I anticipated and cultivating my love for Ukraine even more.

I did kinda have a teacher quibble with the book, which is that I had never met someone who speaks a second language with the kind of elevated but out-of-place vocabulary that Alex does. That is, until one day I did meet a Ukrainian who did have an oddly formal word choice, and I got off my teaching high horse.

Read a sample of Everything Is Illuminated — looks like Kindle Unlimited members can read the whole book for free!

Borderland: A Journey Through the History of Ukraine

Written by a journalist during the mid-1990s, Borderland is an engrossing Ukraine history book. Each chapter centers on a different Ukrainian city, book-ended by the personal observations of Anna Reid as she traveled the country. It was fascinating to compare the cities I knew with their ancient history – and Reid’s experiences shortly after independence.

It’s an easy read, not at all dry history, though Ukraine’s complex history does make it a bit confusing at times. I think I benefitted from my familiarity with the country, but someone with the ability to work Google maps should be able to stay centered. Definitely worth a read if you’re interested in the political history of Ukraine and its relationship with Russia.

Check out a preview of Borderland — this version was updated in 2015. I read the earlier version, but now I’m thinking I’ll get this one for my future bookshelf.

The White Guard by Mikhail Bulgakov

As the armies struggling in World War I fought over the Eastern Front, Kyiv was in turmoil. Four different factions vied for control of the city, the Germans, the Soviets, the Russian Imperialists, and the Ukrainian nationalists. The White Guard focuses on one family trapped both in the city and their loyalties, a devastating look at what happens to the pawns of international politics. It’s not the easiest book to get through if you don’t quite understand the history and the key players, but it’s interesting to see how Kyiv has always been a city of diverse opinions and complicated relationships.

Written in 1925, The White Guard was obviously controversial in Soviet Russia, but Mikhail Bulgakov went on to become most celebrated writers in Russian literature. Born in Kyiv in 1891, his works are read widely in Ukrainian schools.

Read a free sample of The White Guard here!

Moonlight in Odessa by Janet Skeslien Charles

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, cultured, swank Odessa falls on hard times. Clever and stoic Daria has to navigate the treacherous world of love and commerce, rejecting the advances of her wealthy foreign boss, stashing extra cash by working as a translator for a ‘love agency,’ and dealing with her complicated feelings for a dangerous mafia prince. When her own ticket out of poverty-stricken Ukraine comes around, does Daria dare take it, even though it means abandoning everything she knows and loves?

While seemingly a fun beach read, this novel still tackles a semi-taboo topic – how Ukrainian women have long been taken advantage of and stereotyped for their interactions with foreign men. This novel gives a glimpse of how things can blur from black and white to gray, all in an easy-to-read story with sly allusions to the difficulties immediately following independence.

Read a sample of Moonlight in Odessa here!

The Road to Donetsk by Diane Chandler

In 1994 a young woman arrives in Ukraine, part of a cadre of experts there to help the newly independent country transition from crippling communism to sustainable capitalism. Vanessa Parker sees opportunity even in the challenges Ukraine presents her. But working in international aid isn’t as straightforward as it seems, and Vanessa has to grapple with the fact that good intentions don’t get things done.

In all honesty, I felt the writing in this book was often clumsy, especially in how the main character’s idealism is always pure and outraged by complacency. But the most fascinating part of the book was the way it described the bureaucracy of humanitarian work and how sometimes the international community is completely tone-deaf in its aid strategies. Chandler actually did work in Ukraine in the 1990s, so her personal experiences help shape the narrative. And throughout it, I couldn’t stop comparing the story she tells with the current stories coming out of Donetsk, intertwining an compelling emotional thread throughout my reading experience.

Read a preview of The Road to Donetsk here!

The Lonely Planet Guide to Ukraine

Not a novel or a memoir, but still important reading if you’re planning a trip to Ukraine! I used my Lonely Planet guidebook a lot while I was living there, and would definitely recommend it as I find it well-organized and insightful. The only caveat I have about the one I traveled with is — well, I’m pretty sure it was printed *during* the Maidan Revolution. They make reference to it but they also still list Yanukovych as president. The above link goes to the newer 2018 Ukraine Lonely Planet edition though, and I’m interested to see how they handle the disputed regions in it.

Want to travel light but still take a bookshelf-worth of books? Check out Amazon’s e-readers! I got my first Kindle waaaaay back when the first Fire came out, but I’ve been thinking it’s time to move on to a Paperwhite.