I Will Die in a Foreign Land

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

Winner of the New York Public Library Young Lions Award
Best Book of the Year -New York Public Library, Cosmopolitan, Independent Book Review

In 1913, a Russian ballet incited a riot in Paris at the new Théâtre de Champs-Elysées. "Only a Russian could do that," says Aleksandr Ivanovich. "Only a Russian could make the whole world go mad."

A century later, in November 2013, thousands of Ukrainian citizens gathered at Independence Square (Euromaidan) in Kyiv to protest then-President Yanukovych's failure to sign a referendum with the European Union, opting instead to forge a closer alliance with President Vladimir Putin and Russia. The peaceful protests turned violent when military police shot live ammunition into the crowd, killing over a hundred civilians.

I Will Die in a Foreign Land is a novel that follows four individuals over the course of a volatile Ukrainian winter, as their lives are changed forever by the Euromaidan protests. Katya is a Ukrainian-American doctor stationed at a makeshift medical clinic in St. Michael's Monastery; Misha is an engineer originally from Pripyat, near Chernobyl, who has lived in Kyiv since his wife's death; Slava is a fiery young activist whose past hardships steel her determination in the face of persecution; and Aleksandr Ivanovich, a former KGB agent, climbs atop a burned-out police bus at Independence Square and plays the piano. As Katya, Misha, Slava, and Aleksandr's lives become intertwined, they each seek out love, redemption and meaning during a tumultuous and violent period.

In this dazzling debut novel, Kalani Pickhart blends narrative, folklore, journalism and Slavic history to create a moving story of beauty and love in a time of terror, I Will Die in a Foreign Land is an ambitious, intimate, and haunting portrait of human perseverance and the will to survive.

"I tore through I Will Die in a Foreign Land... nothing has given me such a profound impression of what Ukrainians have endured as this intensely moving novel." Ron Charles, Washington Post

© Kalani Pickhart 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Critics Review

  • Powerful debut … an impressive feat of empathy … a rich, multilayered story [that] will resonate with a wide range of readers, and provide illuminating insight for those hoping to learn more about the current conflict.

    Guardian

  • Pickhart’s story is powerful, boldly imaginative, rich in history and feeling, charged with events that have occurred since it was written – and which summon up the same force of the history that compelled an American author to write about this “foreign land”.

    The Times

  • An innovative and compelling debut… I Will Die in a Foreign Land is an illuminating and worthwhile read.

    The Irish Times

  • This bighearted novel generously portrays the unforgettable set of characters through their determination to face oppression. It’s a stunner.

    Publishers Weekly, Starred review

  • Simply breathtaking in its scope. Pickhart’s storytelling is flawless with nothing gratuitous or superfluous. She has taken a large, complex subject and rendered it both tragic and tender by reminding the reader that in the end, the individual life touched by conflict is what really matters.

    New York Journal of Books

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