Black Square: Adventures in Post-Soviet Ukraine

Pinkham, who has written on Ukraine for the New Yorker, has a reporter’s incisive eye and gives a rich and fascinating view of post-Soviet Ukrainian life. She studied Russian and volunteered with health groups in college, and, after graduating in the early 2000s, was in search of purpose. She took a job with the Open Society Institute, working on an education and treatment program for drug users to combat the AIDS epidemic. Pinkham eventually moves to Ukraine—a country whose “horse-drawn carts and babushkas survived” alongside newfound wealth and a growing totalitarian state—and falls in love with it. She’s astute in her observations as she takes a close look at Ukraine’s complex history and often hostile relationship with Russia. Pinkham is increasingly aware of the ever-present corruption and growing instability in Ukraine, and she examines the Maidan revolution and Putin’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, and the continuing war in eastern Ukraine. Pinkham’s look at Ukraine is accessible and comprehensive. [em](Nov.) [/em]