Winners of BBC News Ukraine Book Award learn about success while on frontline

The winning book was compared to Netflix’s hit TV series Breaking Bad.

Ministry of Defence (MoD) of UK military personnel boarding an RAF Voyager aircraft at RAF Brize Norton, as around 8,000 British Army troops will take part in exercises across eastern Europe to combat Russian aggression in one of the largest deployments since the Cold War (Sharron Flyod/Ministry of Defence/Crown/PA) (PA Archive)

The winners of the BBC News Ukraine Book Award learned of their success while they served on the frontline fighting Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Andriy Semyankiv discovered his book Dancing With Bones Medical Thriller had been named the BBC’s Book Of The Year and Pavlo Kazarin who wrote The Wild West Of Eastern Europe had won the BBC Book Of The Year Essays during a virtual ceremony while they serve as part of the Ukrainian Army.

The 2022 awards were announced not at a live event in Kyiv as usual but virtually through the BBC News Ukraine website following Russia’s invasion on February 24.

Mr Semyankiv told BBC News Ukraine: “I’m lost for words. This news looks as if it had come from a parallel world. I can’t believe it. The only thing I can say is thank you to people who were interested in this, who took the risk to read the book written by a debutant in fiction.

“I am incredibly glad that people now find the opportunity to read. Honestly. Because I try, and I fail purely psychologically even when I have time for reading. That’s why I admire those who continue reading, no matter how hard it is. Though there’s war now, we must continue to do things for which we are generally fighting.”

Opening the virtual ceremony, BBC News Ukraine Editor Marta Shokalo, said: “This year, even the possibility of staging the competition was a matter of long discussions as we asked if this is the right time and if there even will be enough books to consider.

“We now know that it was, and there were. We received so many books, albeit in digital versions. Including books about the ongoing war. So many books came from Kharkiv, just as the city was shelled. We now know that even as the war rages, books are published, books are bought and books are read.”

Ms Shokalo compared the winning entry by Mr Semyankiv to Netflix’s hit TV series Breaking Bad.

She added: “Andriy Semyankiv’s book fulfils one of the most important missions of literature – to entertain. It’s been a long time since the Ukrainian literature has produced such an exciting plot. This book has every chance to become a bestseller not only in Ukraine but also internationally, as soon as it is translated into other languages.”

Meanwhile, Mr Kazarin said he had planned a promotional tour for his book but had managed only one presentation before the war broke out.

He said: “For me, it is really very important that the book survived February 24 (when Russia first invaded). And if, in the opinion of my colleagues, in the opinion of the distinguished jury, it deserves attention, it means that some things that have been formulated during the last eight years, the changes, that happened to us from the 2014 to 2022, are really important.”

Ghosts Of The Black Forest by Andriy Bachynskyi was also announced as BBC Children’s Book Of The Year during the ceremony.

Mr Bachynskyi said: “It’s a great pleasure for me, because I didn’t expect at all that the contest will be held this year and at such times.

“This war and all these events have not broken you, and thus, they have not broken us. That gives us, the authors, the drive, the strength, and the desire to continue writing and creating. And it shows that we do all this for a reason,”

The winning author in each category is awarded the equivalent of £1,000 while the publishers have the right to use the logos of the BBC News Ukraine Book awards on subsequent editions.

Last year, Artem Chekh won Book Of The Year for Who Are You?, while Children’s Book Of The Year went to Petro Yatsenko’s Union Of Soviet Things and Andriy Sodomora won the Book Of The Year Essays for What to Write About.