Absolute Zero

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. One of the most important messages the book conveys is that war means pain. Chekh is not showing the reader any heroic combat, focusing instead on the quiet, mundane, and harsh soldier’s life. Chekh masterfully selects the most poignant details of this kind of life.

This memoir, translated by Olena Jennings and Oksana Lutsyshyna, is the diary of a Ukrainian novelist who fought in the Donbas region starting in 2015, and incorporates perspectives of civilians and his fellow soldiers.