Siege. A novel about Mariupol

Andrea Nicastro is an Italian journalist and writer. He worked as a war correspondent in Bosnia, Kosovo, Serbia, Haiti, Peru, Ecuador, Indonesia, Chechnya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Georgia, Iran and Ukraine.

In his work “Siege. A Novel about Mariupol”, the author presents his own view of the events of February-May 2022 in Ukraine. After returning to Italy, the author described his feeling when a bomb fell nearby: glass inflating like a balloon, the facade of buildings and stones becoming soft, moving and flowing like a wave on the sea. “It was a crazy experience, how crazy this war is,” the writer says.

He talks about the transformation of a person in extreme conditions, giving space to pain and fears that Europe has not faced for 70 years. Nicastro shows that war can both produce incredible displays of humanity and turn previously “civilized” people into monsters. He traces the changes in the personal values ​​of the novel’s characters and describes the emotions of those who have endured terrible ordeals.