Amadoka

Mutilated beyond recognition in one of the hot spots in Eastern Ukraine, the hero of the novel "Amadoka" only miraculously survived. This is a dubious comfort since the severe injuries have led to a complete loss of memory: the man does not remember his name, nor where he comes from, does not remember a single close person, not a single fragment of his previous life. This is how he is found by a woman whose love and patience can work miracles: reaching the deepest layers of oblivion and memories, combining scattered fragments of mutilated consciousness, and stitching together a shared history.

Amadoka is the largest lake in Europe, located on the territory of modern Ukraine; first mentioned by Herodotus and reproduced on maps by medieval cartographers for several centuries until its sudden and complete disappearance. How do great lakes evaporate without a trace? How do whole worlds, whole cultures disappear - and what remains instead? Could there be a connection between the Jewish Catastrophe of Eastern Europe and the destruction of the Ukrainian intelligentsia during Stalin's repressions?