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Ukrainian Lessons

Art in a Time of War
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Ukrainian Lessons

By: Charlotte Higgins
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Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

A deeply personal, first-hand account of art, survival and resistance in wartime Ukraine


Charlotte Higgins never imagined she would report on a war. But in the autumn of 2022, seven months into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, she travelled there to cover a literary festival. The experience would change her life.

In a war fuelled by the attempted erasure of Ukrainian culture – one that has killed countless artists and created countless more – art has become a matter of life and death. In times of war, art and literature are where difficulty and complexity survive: where the most painful, unspeakable truths can still be faced.

Drawing on two decades of cultural journalism, three years of reporting trips to Ukraine, and her training as a classicist, Ukrainian Lessons explores the profound connections between war, art and life. It is a searing, urgent and unforgettable book about what artists are prepared to risk – and why culture remains worth fighting for.

© Charlotte Higgins 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

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Critic reviews

This is the most beautifully written, moving book I can ever remember reading. There is so much love in it. (Philippa Perry)
Ukrainian Lessons is a brilliant and unforgettable book. It is an intensely moving meditation on war, memory and loss written with compassion and anger and love. I want everyone I know to read it (Edmund de Waal)
Miraculous reading; a book that blows your heart open to the atrocities of invasion and the rich wonders of Ukrainian art. Never has a work of non-fiction so inspired and moved me. Charlotte Higgins leaves you galvanised and furious. (Fiona Benson)
This book is a gift and an act of courage. Ukrainian Lessons teaches us how war makes art, and how the artist tells us the truth of war. Charlotte Higgins has written a survival manual for our blood-stricken times (Jacqueline Rose)
Charlotte Higgins has poured such heart, erudition and humanity into this intensely moving and gorgeously written book. Ukrainian Lessons is a superb achievement, distilling why, for so many Ukrainians, art has become a fierce and necessary response to war... Every page is unforgettable (Rachel Clarke)
An excellent book. A moving testament to the horror of the war in Ukraine and the vital role of culture in fighting it. (Henry Marsh)
A book for our times, bringing to life remarkable people and places, and the beating heart of humanity and war, all brilliantly wrought by a uniquely present and special writer (Philippe Sands)
Few writers have deepened our understanding of the human experience of the war more than Charlotte Higgins... In Ukrainian Lessons, all of her work - of risk and reporting and study - has combined to produce an unassuming masterpiece of journalistic memoir. Here is a book that must be read by anyone hoping to fathom this ominous decade of European history (John Jeremiah Sullivan)
A beautiful, erudite, heartbreaking book. Charlotte Higgins conveys a deep understanding of the centrality of culture to the Ukrainian cause, as she examines whether art can have redemptive power in a time of war. But it is the quality of her prose that sets this book apart. I loved it. (Lindsey Hilsum)
Russia's ultimate aim is to destroy Ukrainian identity and culture. Higgins takes you into the thick of this literal culture war, where art meets murder. The way she moves between epics and epochs enables you to see the Ukraine war in its true meaning - as the struggle for a people's identity (Peter Pomerantsev)
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