Ukraine: Remember Also Me: Testimonies from the War

by George Butler, George Butler (Illustrator)

Overview

A collection of vivid and powerful testimonies from the conflict in Ukraine, collated and illustrated by award-winning artist George Butler.

While reporting on the war in Ukraine, George Butler has created striking and intimate illustrations to introduce us to the people behind the headlines. His drawings, made in a variety of places from missile-scarred streets to nursing homes, vividly capture stories of family, tragedy, and perseverance. These powerful portraits of war and conflict are a timely reminder of the humanity we all share and our universal need for peace. A stunning, illuminating, and sensitive look at stories that deserve to be told. Includes a foreword by Oksana Markarova, Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781529514087
Publisher:	Walker Studio
Publication date:	06/06/2024
Pages:	168
Product dimensions:	9.45(w) x 7.95(h) x 1.06(d)

About the Author

George Butler is an award-winning artist specializing in current affairs and travel. His work has been published by the Times (London), BBC, the New York Times, the Guardian, CNN, and more, and has been displayed in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. His pen, ink, and watercolor drawings are made in situ, and he has reported on a range of conflicts and crises in countries including Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and, most recently, Ukraine. In 2014 he and three friends founded the Hands Up Foundation, which promotes awareness of the ongoing war in Syria and supports salaries of professionals in the country. It has so far raised more than £4 million. Drawn Across Borders was his first children's book. George Butler lives in London.

Editorial Reviews

In my time serving in Ukraine, I witnessed the incredible strength and resourcefulness of the Ukrainian people, which George Butler so perfectly captures in his sensitive portraits and profiles. This book is a powerful testament to a people who are fighting for their lives and country and, in doing so, are fighting for all of us.
—William B. Taylor, former US ambassador to Ukraine

George Butler reports from the frontline of humanity producing images of astonishing power. They stay in the mind for a long time. Humane, compassionate, and deeply thought-provoking.
—Stephen Fry

Reportage of aching beauty – Butler’s gentle engagement draws out stories of profound sadness, but also courage and strength.
—Lyse Doucet, journalist

Reportage illustration at its finest.
—Ian Hislop, journalist

George Butler is in the front rank of chroniclers of our trouble times. His work shows the power of paper and ink in the digital age.
—Jeremy Bowen, journalist

George is a truly remarkable person – there is so much courage, curiosity, and empathy behind these precise, sometimes playful, unexpected images of humans in extremity. He always makes me think.
—Rory Stewart, author

George Butler’s poignant illustrations show what I see every day in the soldiers and other amputees recovering at the Superhumans Center, that Ukrainians living and trying and surviving is a powerful form of resistance.
—Olga Rudneva, CEO of Superhumans

Butler includes stories of survival, sacrifice, and unspeakable violence, as well as reflections on community care and people’s hopes and dreams and what brings them joy. The subjects and settings are carefully rendered in sparsely colored ink, watercolor, and collage illustrations, offering a loose, unfinished style that befits the ever-evolving stories and conflict. . . . A raw and indelible work that presents the experiences, perspectives, and voices of ordinary people.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

A moving oral history that humanizes war.
—Booklist (Starred Review)

From the Publisher

★ 2024-07-19
This work of war reportage presents illustrations, reflections, and interviews with everyday people who were in Ukraine when Russian forces attacked the country in February 2022.

British journalist and artist Butler visited the country in March 2022, only days after the initial invasion; he completed a return trip in the spring of 2023. While he conducted his interviews and observations during a specific time frame, a broader history—as well as ruminations on the human condition and the “circularity of war”—emerge through and within them. The visceral accounts are deeply affecting, mixing stories of trauma and quotidian aspects of life and reflecting their subjects’ varied perspectives—when Butler met them, Volodymyr was 7 and Madame Olga was 99. Butler includes stories of survival, sacrifice, and unspeakable violence, as well as reflections on community care and people’s hopes and dreams and what brings them joy. The subjects and settings are carefully rendered in sparsely colored ink, watercolor, and collage illustrations, offering a loose, unfinished style that befits the ever-evolving stories and conflict. In most instances, a portrait is followed by a write-up offering each subject’s name, age, location, and context about how Butler came to be in contact with them. Many portraits are accompanied by the subject’s own words, recorded through direct conversations or email exchanges; Butler acknowledges the assistance of “Ukrainian fixers, translators, and drivers.”

A raw and indelible work that presents the experiences, perspectives, and voices of ordinary people. (map, afterword, art notes)(Nonfiction. 12-adult)

Kirkus Reviews