June’s bestseller list at Knyzhkovyi Lev revolved around one broad idea: understanding ourselves and the world we live in.
The list included creativity, war writing, learning Ukrainian, media culture, Greek fiction, Lina Kostenko’s poetry, decolonisation, Taras Shevchenko, sexuality and contemporary Japanese fiction.
The number-one book was Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act: A Way of Being, a reflection on creativity not as a professional skill but as a way of perceiving and engaging with the world. The Ukrainian edition was published by KSD in 2023.
Second came Hemingway Knows Nothing by Artur Dron, a collection of war stories rooted in the author’s direct experience of military service.
The third position was particularly interesting: Ukrainian for Foreigners, a workbook designed for people learning Ukrainian as a foreign language.
Emma Antoniuk’s Goodbye, Television! ranked fourth. Published in 2026, the novel is a coming-of-age dramedy set against the world of Ukrainian television and media.
Margarita Liberaki’s Three Summers took fifth place in June — before becoming Knyzhkovyi Lev’s number-one bestseller in July. The novel is a twentieth-century Greek classic about three sisters, family memory and coming of age.
Lina Kostenko’s new poetry collection Wind from Mars ranked sixth. Published in May 2026, it includes both new and previously unpublished poems spanning the period from the early years of Ukrainian independence to the current war.
Mariam Naiem’s How to Breathe Freely? A Guide to Decolonisation came seventh, reflecting continued reader interest in questions of identity, memory and colonial experience.
The list also included Mykola Storozhenko’s miniature art book My Shevchenko, Pani Lan’s provocative Sex Is a Gift from God, and Genki Kawamura’s If Cats Disappeared from the World.
Knyzhkovyi Lev — June 2026 Top 10
- The Creative Act: A Way of Being — Rick Rubin
- Hemingway Knows Nothing — Artur Dron
- Ukrainian for Foreigners
- Goodbye, Television! — Emma Antoniuk
- Three Summers — Margarita Liberaki
- Wind from Mars — Lina Kostenko
- How to Breathe Freely? A Guide to Decolonisation — Mariam Naiem
- My Shevchenko — Mykola Storozhenko
- Sex Is a Gift from God — Pani Lan
- If Cats Disappeared from the World — Genki Kawamura
What makes this list interesting is not one dominant genre but the conversation between the books.
Some help readers think about creativity. Others about war, language, identity or memory. Some challenge taboos. Others simply offer a different way of looking at life.
June’s readers were not choosing one mood. They were choosing different ways of understanding themselves.
