Books at the Institute presents an evening in conversation celebrating the publication and translation of Oleh Sentsov’s Diary of a Hunger Striker and Four and a Half Steps. 

A remarkable two-book volume: Diary of A Hunger Striker, the first-hand account of celebrated Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov, jailed unfairly as a political prisoner, during his 145-day-long hunger strike in a Russian prison; and Four and a Half Steps, his newest collection of short stories. 

Ms. Tsurkan will be joining the talk via live stream video from Chernivsti, Ukraine and Mr. Kyyan will be participating in person. Mr. Sentsov is currently serving alongside Ukrainian armed forces against Russian occupying troops in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya region.

Light reception to follow.

From the publisher’s website:

A powerful new historical graphic novel, In the Shadow of Stalin reexamines the bravery and tragedy that first thrust Ukraine in the international spotlight in the years before World War II. Gareth Jones is a young journalist with powerful connections after a groundbreaking interview with Adolf Hitler and his chief propagandist, Joseph Goebbels. This notoriety gains him permission to travel to the Soviet Union for a potential interview with Joseph Stalin. Jones hopes to learn more about the Soviets mass economic gains but finds himself stonewalled and trapped in Moscow. While looking for a way out, he meets new allies that alert him to the growing man-made famine, or Holodomor, happening in Ukraine under the government’ guidance. Jones, seeking the truth in all its ugliness, embarks on a journey of discovery, strife, and a cover-up of the deaths of millions of people.