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Absolute Zero - Paperback | Diverse Reads

Absolute Zero

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The book is a first person account of a soldier's journey, and is based on Artem Chekh's diary that he wrote while and after his service in the war in Donbas. One of the most important messages the book conveys is that war means pain. Chekh is not showing the reader any heroic combat, focusing instead on the quiet, mundane, and harsh soldier's life. Chekh masterfully selects the most poignant details of this kind of life.

Translated from the Ukrainian by Olena Jennings and Oksana Lutsyshyna.

ISBN-13: 9781912894673

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: Glagoslav Publications B.V.

Publication Date: 07-07-2020

Pages: 208

Product Dimensions: 5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.48(d)

Artem Chekh (1985) is a contemporary Ukrainian writer, author of more than ten books of fiction and essays. Absolute Zero (2017), an account of Chekh's service in the army in the war in Donbas, is one of his latest books, for which he became a recipient of several prestigious awards in Ukraine, such as the Joseph Conrad Prize (2019), the Gogol Prize (2018), the Voyin Svitla (2018), and the Litaktsent Prize (2017). This is his first book-length translation into English.

Table of Contents

PART I: Absolute Zero 7

New Dreams 8

The Hour of Freedom Fighters 10

One Day in the Life 12

Passions over a Leave 14

Dmytryk 17

So Haysyn It Is 19

Thirty 22

Class Conflict 24

Somebody Else 26

Camp 28

War Is Not Interesting 30

Imitation 32

A Green Chinese Tractor 35

Keep Writing, Chekh 37

Betrayal / Victory 39

Camouflage Cockroaches 41

Long T-shirts 44

It’s All Good 47

PART II: Fall, Winter, and Spring Again 49

That Same Gas Station 50

We Are Here 52

Guiding Principles 54

Norms 56

Absolute Zero 58

Our Friends 61

Light Gray Zone 63

The Sound of the Train Station 65

Night Watch 67

Neighbors 69

Donbas’s Quiet Sun 71

New Old Dream 73

We Succeeded 75

A Unique Fall 78

Almost like in the Stories 80

11120th Day of Life 82

A Miracle Didn’t Happen 84

New Year’s Eve 86

Responsibility 88

Below Zero 90

Cerebral Palsy 92

Boys 94

Two Years Ago 97

War Isn’t Fashionable 99

They Don’t Like Those Kind in the Army 101

A Unique Winter 103

Silence 106

Winter Crops 108

Lethargy 110

Inescapable Experience 112

A Lifetime and a Little More 114

Cotard’s Syndrome 116

A Quasi-Religious Worldview 118

Such People, Such Rocks 120

Our Anniversary Somewhere in the Donbas 122

Seventeen Bags of Paskas 125

Watching Out for the Enemy 128

A Unique Spring 130

Prostitutes Are Always Following the Army 132

Ode to New Balance 134

The Abuse 136

The End of the Fifth Tour 138

The Apricots of Donbas 140

The Last Night 142