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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Want to see more Ukrainian books find readers across languages? Support us on Patreon www.patreon.com/chytomo and help us keep bringing Ukrainian literature to an international audience.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

In this story, the tukoni are supposed to help a bear settle down for hibernation, except the bear learns how much fun can be had in the forest during winter and decides he does not want to sleep through it.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

“Bear Does Not Want to Sleep” by Oksana Bula For the cozier side of autumn, enter Oksana Bula’s magical forest. Her world is inhabited by tukoni — forest spirits who protect forests, help animals, and fill the world with their magic.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

It reimagined fairy tales — an exploration of “old worlds, new universes, current day terrors” for readers drawn to the eerie, unexpected, and wonderfully strange.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

“Embroidered Worlds: Fantastic Fiction from Ukraine and the Diaspora” Looking for something for spooky season? This anthology gathers 30 stories across science fiction, fantasy, horror, slipstream.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

The novel also inspired Sergei Parajanov’s celebrated 1965 film adaptation, now regarded as a landmark of Ukrainian poetic cinema.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Ivan comes of age alongside the mythical creatures of the Carpathians, while his tragic love for Marichka unfolds within the ancient and mysterious world of Hutsul traditions, enchantments, and the Ancestors.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

“Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors” by Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky Forests, folklore, and the otherworldly make this Ukrainian classic feel especially fitting for autumn. In Kotsiubynsky’s Carpathians, a human “becomes inseparable from nature and forever bonds with the mountains.”

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

The plot brings together wanderings, a love triangle, and the tragic image of poet Bohdan-Ihor Antonych, while the novel combines a “mix of playfulness and honesty, humor and sadness.”

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

“Twelve Circles” by Yuri Andrukhovych This one is for disappearing into the Carpathians for a while. A group of people find themselves at an isolated mountain resort in the Ukrainian Carpathians, where they are forced to confront their circumstances and their own demons.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

“Forgottenness” by Tanja Maljartschuk Rainy days suit something introspective. Time acts as the novel’s “evil genius”: narrator, overwhelmed by loneliness and the transience of life, retreats into old newspapers, becoming absorbed in a story of a man almost erased from memory.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

As the days grow shorter, some books seem to fit the season better than others. Here are five Ukrainian books in translation for every autumn reading mood 🍂

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Today on the front page of Frankfurt Show Daily: a cover story about Ukraine 🇺🇦📚 Read the full story here: www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Unlike the earlier English, Dutch, and German titles, the Spanish version returned closely to the meaning of Bahrianyi’s original Ukrainian title.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Decades later, the novel reached Spanish-language readers as “Cazadores de tigres” — “Tiger Hunters.” Myxailo Vasylyk translated the novel into Spanish, with Volodymyr Vasylyk credited for revision. Dunken published the edition in Buenos Aires in 2006.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

The German edition appeared in 1961 as “Das Gesetz der Taiga” — “The Law of the Taiga.” Translated by Margreth von Kees and published by Verlag Styria, it once again moved away from a literal rendering of the Ukrainian title, making the taiga the defining image of the novel.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Instead of the tiger hunters, its title foregrounded Mnohohrishnyi’s escape and the vast wilderness in which much of the story unfolds.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

The Dutch edition followed in 1959 as “Vlucht in de Taiga” — “Flight into the Taiga.” Peter van Wijk translated the novel from the English version for the Dutch publisher Het Spectrum.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

The cover shown here belongs to the later English-language edition, published by Macmillan in London and St. Martin’s Press in New York in 1956–1957.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

The first English translation appeared in Toronto in 1954 as “The Hunters and the Hunted.” Translated from Ukrainian by George S. N. Luckyj and published by Burns & MacEachern.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Bahrianyi later transformed these experiences into one of his best-known adventure novels. As “Tyhrolovy” travelled beyond Ukrainian-language readers, its title and the way international audiences first encountered the story changed dramatically.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

The parallels with Bahrianyi’s own life are striking. The writer experienced Soviet arrests, imprisonment, exile in the Russian Far East, and like his protagonist, he also attempted to escape.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

In the taiga, he finds refuge with the Sirko family, Ukrainian settlers who hunt tigers, while NKVD Major Medvin, the Soviet investigator who had previously tortured Hryhorii during interrogations, continues to pursue him.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Bahrianyi wrote the novel in 1944. Its protagonist, Hryhorii Mnohohrishnyi, is a Ukrainian political prisoner being transported to the Gulag in the Soviet Far East who manages to escape from the train carrying him into captivity.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

We continue to discover what the “translation” of the cover of a Ukrainian literary classic looks like. Today, our focus is Ivan Bahrianyi’s “Tyhrolovy” — an adventure novel about escape, survival, resistance to Soviet repression, shaped in part by the author’s own experiences

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

If you value independent cultural journalism that brings Ukrainian literature and its translations to international readers, support Chytomo on Patreon www.patreon.com/chytomo

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Now English-language readers will be able to encounter it too. Academic Studies Press is set to publish the book in late 2026 in a co-translation by Yulia Lyubka and Kate Tsurkan.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The book is one of Yablonska’s three travelogues, alongside “The Charm of Morocco” and “Distant Horizons,” significant both as records of travel and as original works of creative writing.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The edition includes an afterword by Olena Haleta, an introductory essay by Yuri Andrukhovych, and was edited by Roksolana Sviato.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

A German translation followed much later. “China, das Land von Reis und Opium,” translated from Ukrainian by Claudia Dathe, was published by Kupido Literaturverlag in 2023.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Ukrainian poet and translator Marta Kalytovska, who assisted Yablonska with her literary work in France and later helped collect, edit, and translate her writings, translated the book into French as “Au pays du riz et de l’opium,” published in Paris in 1986.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

First published in Ukrainian in Lviv in 1936, “From the Land of Rice and Opium” had already crossed linguistic borders decades ago.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

At the same time, Yablonska turns the gaze back on herself. She tries to see both herself and the world she represents “through the Other’s eyes,” revealing not only curiosity about China but also the European assumptions and sense of superiority that shaped her perspective.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Pirates, criminals, a dangerous flood, monasteries, and an episode involving opium push the travelogue toward adventure storytelling. As Tetyana Petrenko writes, “Yablonska, the reporter, gives way to Yablonska, the character.”

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Photography becomes one of the book’s central motifs. Some people she meets see the camera as magic capable of stealing souls. After a young man she photographs disappears, suspicion falls on Yablonska, transforming her into the book’s “white sorceress.”

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Yablonska places herself at the center of the story: a 30-year-old traveler proud of her individuality, camera in hand, determined to photograph the people she encounters. At times, she presents herself almost like the heroine of an adventure novel.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

What happens when a travel writer becomes the protagonist of her own adventure? Ukrainian writer, journalist, photographer, and traveler Sofia Yablonska journeyed to places women of her generation often knew only from books.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Try to find your perfect book match chapterukraine.com/recommend/

chapterukraine.com

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

If you value independent cultural journalism and want more stories about Ukrainian literature to reach readers around the world, support Chytomo on Patreon www.patreon.com/chytomo and help us continue this work.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Bahrianyi later became one of the organizers of the émigré Artistic Ukrainian Movement and continued writing fiction, journalism, and political texts while advocating for an independent Ukraine.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

His political experience also entered his fiction.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Archival documents later showed that Soviet security services closely studied the pamphlet and regarded its author as a dangerous opponent of Soviet power.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The pamphlet spoke directly about Soviet repression, the artificial famine that killed millions of Ukrainians, the destruction of the clergy and Ukrainian intelligentsia, and the camp system. Bahrianyi also used the phrase “red Russian fascism” to describe the regime.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

By then, his own life had already given him firsthand knowledge of the system he was writing against. Bahrianyi was among those who “already back in the 1940s told the truth about the USSR in the West.”

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

For Bahrianyi, this was deeply personal. In 1932, he was arrested on charges of “counter-revolutionary agitation” and sentenced to exile in the Russian Far East. Arrested again in 1938, he spent two years enduring physical and psychological torture before being released in 1940.

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Chytomo @chytomo.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Written after World War II, the pamphlet reflected the position of Ukrainians displaced across Europe who refused to return to Soviet-controlled Ukraine. This text expresses the stance of refugees who would not go back to a country that remained under Russian occupation.

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