Nineviia

This book of poems is a true historical document. But its significance goes beyond documentary testimony about the war. It is a vital poetic chronicle of the historical tragedy caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and of how Ukrainians are living through this ongoing tragedy. Poetic notes on the new daily life of a beautiful city maimed by war are interwoven here with observations of the new psychological norm of its inhabitants. Polyphony is the main quality of the language Galina creates in Nineviia — not only of voices and intonations, not only of languages and cultural dialects, but also of perspectives of meaning. That is why, overlapping with the poetic chronicle, Galina unfolds a fantasy somewhat reminiscent of Game of Thrones, which ultimately turns out to be a transformation of the same wartime, besieged existence. These two realities keep drifting into and overlapping each other — and this is what the best poems in the book are about (Mark Lipovetsky).