Kharkiv's cultural life defies constant Russian bombardment with first book presentation during war

Kharkiv's cultural life defies constant Russian bombardment with first book presentation during war

Apr 18 2022

Ukraine’s indomitable spirit was on full display over the weekend in Kharkiv, the nation's second largest city, when the publication of a new book was presented in a bomb shelter amid interspersed Russian bombardment.

A Ukrainian translation of the New York Times bestseller “Go the F**k to Sleep” was presented by its translator, famed writer and Kharkiv native, Serhiy Zhadan.

Russian projectiles struck the area an hour before the event started past midnight, where the presentation was staged in an undisclosed bomb shelter in the city located just 40 kilometers from the Russian border that had a pre-war population of more than 1 million people,.

“We decided to go ahead anyway and [local] journalists showed up to cover the event,” said Halyna Padalko, communications director of the Vivat publishing house that owns the rights to the Ukrainian-language version of the book.

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