ONLY CACTUSES SURVIVE IN WAR

Alexander Motsar

The book Only Cacti Survive in War is a collection of short notes written by the author in Bucha and Kyiv, starting in February 2022.

"...The first rupture of war. You still don't understand, don't realize what war is. You still think it's a local event that will freeze in history, in your own memory, as a vivid episode that you can later recall as a tragicomic curiosity. You don't yet know that at this very moment your world has shattered into thousands of shapeless, ugly fragments. A person's world ceases to be a coherent story and falls apart into episodes — sometimes disjointed, random — in which old friends and acquaintances are often lost, but new shadows of a new reality appear.

Unfortunately, I have memories that I will probably never share, but these notes, written from memory, will remain with me. Here is the city of Bucha near Kyiv, under fire.

The book features photographs taken by the author. The cover shows a mark left on the asphalt by a mine explosion.

FRESH Verlag, 2024. — 81 p.

ISBN 978‐3‐910610‐40‐8

Рецензии:

Thorns in the Ashes: Testimony as Form. On Alexander Motsar’s Book

Autor

Александр Моцар

Alexander Motsar

Finalist on the shortlist for the Dar 2026 Prize. Ukrainian poet and prose writer.

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