Nothing predisposed him to this role. And yet: circumstances led Ukrainian Sofia Andrukhovych to witness the war unfolding before her eyes. That’s the whole point everything that is humanA series of histories of the disrupted lives of Ukrainians since the beginning of the Russian occupation (1).
The 41-year-old author is known for his novels that delve into the troubled history of his country. First met with success Felix AustriaPublished in 2007, it follows the fate of a Ukrainian maid living in a small town in Western Ukraine in the 1900s.
Sofia Andrukhovych is from this region of Ivano-Frankivsk, which, like the rest of Galicia, was integrated into the USSR only in 1944. “There we always imagined that our past belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. “It was the best thing we had to get away from the Soviet Union.”” he says gently. Felix Austria It allowed Ukrainians to rediscover this hidden history and has been translated into nearly twenty languages (2).
writer’s daughter
In literature, Sofia Andrukhovych needed to make a name for herself. her daughter Yuri AndrukhovychOne of the most famous living Ukrainian writers, a symbol of the cultural renewal that occurred after independence in 1991 (3). In order to exist next to this father who received so much light, he had to withdraw into himself, seek the certainty that he could make his own voice heard: “I fully know that I am a writer now. But I had my doubts. “I stopped writing for two years.”says.
After six novels, she is now a well-known figure in the Ukrainian literary world. She is married to Andrij Bondar, also a writer, and is the mother of a 15-year-old daughter. However, she is not a public figure who is very involved in public debates, like her father or her husband. Discreet Sofia Andrukhovych expresses herself only through her books. “She looks a bit like the little princess of Ukrainian literature.” A Ukrainian journalist said this about him.
During our stay in Paris, we found him in this image, all measured and controlled, his porcelain face beneath his black-haired helmet, devoted to finding the right words to talk about his work. But if today he confronts current events and undertakes to bear witness to current events, it is because the war has changed everything: “When the attack started, words failed me. “Writing had become impossible.”, says. Later, he was asked to write columns in Western newspapers. They formed the basis of this book, and through it he returned to the path of writing, eventually “I can’t do anything else”.
Momentum of a people
The author, who skillfully describes the people he meets, his family members or his circle of friends, repeats himself. everything that is humanOne of the many questions running through Ukrainian society today. After the surprise comes the momentum of an entire people’s struggle for survival. The heroism of a few rubs shoulders with the cowardice, anger and misfortune of others… And this persistent question about the use of the Russian language arises: Ukrainians are often criticized for wanting to erase all traces of Russian culture. their home. He resolves this debate in a few sentences: Therefore, asking Ukrainians to continue promoting Russian culture, “It’s as if we were asking the bloody victim of a newly committed crime to stop shaking and jumping every time someone who resembles a rapist in silhouette enters the room. »
His texts are also an internal journey: he tells us what this war has changed in him; feeling of guilt, the need to help one’s neighbor… What these lines reveal is, above all, his devotion to his country, to his misfortune. to destiny and its human people. Sofia Andrukhovych still lives in Kiev with her family. She can’t imagine doing it any other way. “I wouldn’t be able to write if I wasn’t in Ukraine”, says. And it seems that for him a life without writing was no life at all.