Lists

Homer in Song II of the Iliad lists the ships and the names of the soldiers who sailed to Troy, but does not list the ships that survived or the soldiers who were able to return. The word “war” is always accompanied by the word “loss.” These are losses of soldiers, losses of equipment, losses of the enemy, loss of a son, loss of an arm, loss of sleep… The author spoke with medics at the headquarters, with soldiers who lost limbs or eyesight, with relatives of the dead and missing, with people who evacuated, and those who remained in front-line cities. He tries to record what loss looks like right now.

The book “Lists” is a collection of reports and essays about what and why Ukrainians call their losses. This is a story about a firefighter in the Kharkiv region who arrived at his own house on a call, where he found his wife killed by a KAB. About art in Kharkiv and the shelling of Derzhprom. About the soldiers who lost their sight, about the children who study at the school opposite the Kinburn Spit and lose their childhood. About sleep, memory, normalcy and other losses we have.