My byli zdes' (We Were Here) is a book about war in which the war itself is absent. But there are adults and children whom war has “chewed up and spat out.” It is a world of short, simple sentences that conceal profoundly complex feelings and broken lives.

This is finely crafted psychological prose, nominally written for teenagers but in fact addressed to readers of any age. It is a text about experiencing, or rather living through, war, about friendship, forgiveness, and the need for love in spite of everything.

The book, which Anna Gorvits both wrote and illustrated, has been highly praised by Anton Dolin, Linor Goralik, and Yan Valetov. For the publisher Evgeny Kogan, it was that remarkable book he had been “waiting for.”

It is a story about hope written in permanent marker on a pebble, and about the strength of its characters, which becomes the strength of the reader. Piercing, precise prose that doesn’t let go after the first reading.