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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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About this listen

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)
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)
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 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)
Ukrainian Lessons made me think about what art can do and the stark reality of what art can never begin to mend. It left me sobered, harrowed, confronted and moved to the core (Kate Molleson)
Ukrainian Lessons exemplifies all the best in human nature in the face of all the worst... and does exactly what Czeslaw Milosz said poetry itself must do: act as moral record, give voice to victims of destruction, and chronicle human life in catastrophe (Ruth Padel)
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