Absolute Zero

by Artem Chekh, Oksana Lutsyshyna (Translator), Olena Jennings (Translator)

Overview

The book is a first person account of a soldier's journey, and is based on Artem Chekh's diary that he wrote while and after his service in the war in Donbas.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781912894680
Publisher:	Glagoslav Publications B.V.
Publication date:	07/07/2020
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.63(d)

About the Author

Artem Chekh (1985) is a contemporary Ukrainian writer, author of more than ten books of fiction and essays. Absolute Zero (2017), an account of Chekh's service in the army in the war in Donbas, is one of his latest books, for which he became a recipient of several prestigious awards in Ukraine, such as the Joseph Conrad Prize (2019), the Gogol Prize (2018), the Voyin Svitla (2018), and the Litaktsent Prize (2017). This is his first book-length translation into English.

Table of Contents

PART I: Absolute Zero 7

New Dreams 8

The Hour of Freedom Fighters 10

One Day in the Life 12

Passions over a Leave 14

Dmytryk 17

So Haysyn It Is 19

Thirty 22

Class Conflict 24

Somebody Else 26

Camp 28

War Is Not Interesting 30

Imitation 32

A Green Chinese Tractor 35

Keep Writing, Chekh 37

Betrayal / Victory 39

Camouflage Cockroaches 41

Long T-shirts 44

It’s All Good 47

PART II: Fall, Winter, and Spring Again 49

That Same Gas Station 50

We Are Here 52

Guiding Principles 54

Norms 56

Absolute Zero 58

Our Friends 61

Light Gray Zone 63

The Sound of the Train Station 65

Night Watch 67

Neighbors 69

Donbas’s Quiet Sun 71

New Old Dream 73

We Succeeded 75

A Unique Fall 78

Almost like in the Stories 80

11120th Day of Life 82

A Miracle Didn’t Happen 84

New Year’s Eve 86

Responsibility 88

Below Zero 90

Cerebral Palsy 92

Boys 94

Two Years Ago 97

War Isn’t Fashionable 99

They Don’t Like Those Kind in the Army 101

A Unique Winter 103

Silence 106

Winter Crops 108

Lethargy 110

Inescapable Experience 112

A Lifetime and a Little More 114

Cotard’s Syndrome 116

A Quasi-Religious Worldview 118

Such People, Such Rocks 120

Our Anniversary Somewhere in the Donbas 122

Seventeen Bags of Paskas 125

Watching Out for the Enemy 128

A Unique Spring 130

Prostitutes Are Always Following the Army 132

Ode to New Balance 134

The Abuse 136

The End of the Fifth Tour 138

The Apricots of Donbas 140

The Last Night 142

Editorial Reviews

"Absolute Zero is a reminder that even in frozen conflicts there is life and movement. While the interest of the wider world dwindles, hopes for ceasefires ebb and flow; while politics cycles through tragedy and farce, warm young blood must still pump through the frontlines. Chekh reminds us - as a soldier, but also as a writer who wrote before war and will write after war - that it is for the young people trapped in the war that everything freezes." Thom Dinsdale, East-West Review

"The social identities behind the vintage references in Chekh and Prilepin's works are the fundamental oppositions of the 21st century: on one side the liberals, the bourgeois, the cosmopolitans, the democrats, the globalists, the human rights-ists; on the other, the degreeless workers, the peasants, the patriots, the nationalists, the traditionalists." James Meek, The London Review of Books

The book is "filled with very interesting standalone anecdotes that portray the banality and the grotesque horror of war and how it affects not only soldiers, but people who are trying to get updates from back home." Kate Tsurkan, Coda

"Based on the diary he kept when he served on the frontlines, this book explores the banality of war. There are no depictions of battles, heroic or otherwise; instead, Chekh focuses on the moments in between. It turns out that war isn't very interesting, neither for the soldiers on the frontlines nor for the people unaffected by it-but every Ukrainian soldier cut off from their friends and family and facing an uncertain future will emerge from the war forever changed." Kate Tsurkan, Literary Hub

"The focus is much more on how the soldiers react to the daily life of being a soldier with the possibility of attack being only one of their concerns. It could have been dull but never is as Chekh keeps the story varied with something new continually happening." The Modern Novel

"Chekh, a contemporary Ukrainian author of eight novels, was drafted into the Army following the Russian advance on eastern Ukraine in 2014. In Absolute Zero, he lays out a relentless, guileless account of life in post-Soviet military service." The Millions

"The book foregoes romantic, sweeping reflections on war in favor of hyperrealism that makes it far more relatable to the average reader. War is hell - but it turns out that it's also kind of boring." Kate Tsurkan, Transitions

From the Publisher