By the second spring: seven lives and one year of the war in Ukraine, by Danielle Leavitt

 

This is an amazing work of contemporary history. In it, author Danielle Leavitt profiles seven Ukrainians during the first 18 months of the Ukraine war. They were ordinary citizens, men and women, old and young, married and single, well-to-do and those of moderate means. They came from all over the country and also include one woman who had emigrated to the US with her American husband but who dropped everything to go back and provide relief efforts when the war began. The author structures her books around the seasons: winter, spring, summer, fall/winter, and spring, hence the title. In each section she provides an update on each of those profiled. One man had just fulfilled his dream by opening a coffee shop a few weeks before the war started, only to see it demolished. A woman flees eastern Ukraine with her parents when her husband decides to volunteer for the Ukrainian army. Others try to stay in place while the war rages around them. Throughout the book, Leavitt provides background information that helps set the context for contemporary Russian aggression, outlining much of 20th century Soviet history through the breakup of the Soviet Union and Russia's subsequent attempts to control and dominate its former fellow republics. This book only covers the period through spring of 2023 and its heartbreaking to think about and not know what has happened to the people profiled in the three years since then. I hope at some point there will be an effort to track them down and provide an update.