On July 25–26, Lutsk hosted the sixth Frontera International Literary Festival, with its 2026 programme centred on “The Boundaries of Belonging.” Writers, readers and cultural figures gathered at the historic Okolnyi Castle for conversations about literature, responsibility, identity and shared experience. Artem Chekh and Oleksandr Boychenko were among the writers appearing together in the programme.

Knyzhkovyi Lev joined the festival as a bookseller.

And after two days, our sales chart became an unexpectedly revealing portrait of Frontera's readers.

The number-one book was Lutsk: A Thousand Years of Life and History by Oleksandr Kotys — a particularly fitting bestseller for a festival taking place in Lutsk. Kotys combines urban history, architecture, local stories and the people who shaped the city over the centuries.

Second came Mykoltsove Shchastia by Myroslava Kyrylchuk, a novel that went on to appear on both the longlist and shortlist for BBC Book of the Year 2025.

Ukrainian speculative fiction also performed strongly, with Steppe God, The House of Salt and Lazarus: The Serpent appearing among the twenty bestsellers.

But one of the clearest festival effects came from the programme itself.

Four books by Artem Chekh entered the top twenty — Who Are You?, Song of the Open Road, The Dressing-Up Game and Point Zero. Two books by Oleksandr Boychenko also reached the top ten. Together, the two writers accounted for six of our ten bestselling titles.

That is one of the things literary festivals can do particularly well.

A book on a shelf is an object waiting to be discovered.

A book after hearing its author speak can suddenly feel like the continuation of a conversation.

The second half of the ranking became even more diverse. Readers chose Kateryna Kalytko's poetry, Halyna Kruk's prose, a collection centred on Lutsk, Ukrainian fantasy, correspondence connected with Sofia Yablonska and Volodymyr Vynnychenko — and The Melancholy of Resistance by László Krasznahorkai.

There is no single “typical Frontera reader” hidden in these numbers.

And that may be the most interesting result.

A good literary festival does not tell people what to read. It creates a place where they want to keep looking.

Knyzhkovyi Lev's Frontera 2026 Top 20

  1. Lutsk: A Thousand Years of Life and History — Oleksandr Kotys
  2. Mykoltsove Shchastia — Myroslava Kyrylchuk
  3. Steppe God — Yevhen Lir
  4. Who Are You? — Artem Chekh
  5. Song of the Open Road — Artem Chekh
  6. Mine Among Strangers — Oleksandr Boychenko
  7. The Dressing-Up Game — Artem Chekh
  8. Elimination Game — Oleksandr Boychenko
  9. Point Zero — Artem Chekh
  10. The House of Salt
  11. Lazarus: The Serpent
  12. Correspondence of Sofia Yablonska, Volodymyr Vynnychenko and others
  13. Tower Through “O”
  14. Moon, Moon
  15. The Order of Silent Women — Kateryna Kalytko
  16. Open Fracture of the Voice — Kateryna Kalytko
  17. Anyone but Me — Halyna Kruk
  18. ABC: Flowers
  19. Hunters for Happiness
  20. The Melancholy of Resistance — László Krasznahorkai