The book blurb of Ukrainian writer Maria Kosyan’s book «A Hero for Me» promises a bit of quirky, but still classic close-up fiction, perhaps soft and scientific. But the further I read the book, the more I realized its true meaning. This is the author’s reflection on the Russian-Ukrainian war, her way of living through the experience of the invasion, her attempt to show the devastating consequences for us, Ukrainians. It is also a story about our children and teenagers who quickly became adults because of the war.
Author Maria Kosyan
Publisher «Vihola»
Language Ukrainian
Number of pages 600
Cover Solid
Year of publication 2024
Size 145×200 mm
Website vikhola.com
The novel «A Hero for Me» actually consists of two storylines. To be precise, it is a book within a book. The first line tells about the year 2041, about Ukraine of the future after the war. Here, a young writer Ihor and his girlfriend Dasha go to an island to a large tech company for an experiment. For three months, they and other participants will live here, communicate with AI and personal psychologists, have fun, relax, and so on. For this, they are paid money, provided with the coolest conditions possible, but are forbidden to talk about the past.
Ihor wants to spend this time writing a fantastic book, which he does. His novel is the second storyline. In his universe, there are seven worlds, layers, and there are also Fliers who can move through them, and Shadows — creepy creatures that no one can see, but everyone can feel because they always do evil. The main character of this story is called Hero, and he is also the only one who can see the Shadows. There is also a Station — a tower with light, a place that can be seen from all seven realities, but no one can get there. However, it is somehow connected to the Shadows, and we need to find out how. Gradually, the two worlds intertwine in a bizarre way, it is not clear where reality is and where fiction is, and this is what the reader has to find out.
«A Hero for Me» by Maria Kosyan is not just a book, but a real challenge for the reader’s imagination, emotions, and inner world. It combines science fiction, fantasy, psychological drama, and deep realism, addressing contemporary problems of Ukrainians, including depression, PTSD, loss of loved ones, and more. This work is not easy to read, but that is precisely its strength: it makes you stop, think, and rethink.
The collision of two worlds, the fantasy and the realistic, does not scatter attention while reading, but rather creates a deeper perspective. The idea that a fictional character can be a reflection of the author gives the whole story a special intimacy and volume at the same time. The reader realizes that fiction is not a classic escape from reality, but a way to cope with it. The fantasy line turns out to be no less important than the realistic one because it shows how the psyche forms its defense mechanisms.
At the same time, the two storylines, in fact, a book within a book, double the volume of the work and make it large. There are 600 pages, and the print is quite small, so keep that in mind.
The ending of the book is a real emotional explosion, which probably not everyone will be able to handle now. The fantastical elements suddenly disappear, revealing the brutal truth: this is a story about a war that is going on here and now. The war becomes not a background, but the central theme of the novel. Maria Kosyan conveys the pain and horror of Ukrainian reality so sincerely that these pages read like a testimony. However, it will be difficult to read it emotionally because it describes events that every Ukrainian remembers, and not everyone is ready to read about them now. And those who were under occupation are even less so.
«A Hero for Me» a novel about the inner state of a generation that grew up in times of upheaval.
One of the book’s strongest points is the author’s language. It is emotional, imaginative, and full of metaphors. The writer also skillfully uses dialogues and descriptions, avoiding unnecessary pathos or clichés.
However, the book also has a significant drawback, and that is a large amount of exposition. The author is constantly explaining something, telling details first about one world of Ukraine in 2041, and then about fictional realities with layers. Unfortunately, it was not possible to reduce all this and somehow organically present it through dialogues or other means, so quite a few pages of the plots of the two stories do not move, but stand still, frozen. Meanwhile, the reader is forced to learn about the smallest details of the worlds that are not important to the plot at all. Also, Maria Kosyan naively describes the bright technological future of Ukraine with strange details and peculiarities. In my opinion, all of this is unnecessary; these descriptions could have been safely cut, which would have benefited the novel.
The characters in the novel are not stereotypical. Igor is complex, emotional, and often insecure. Dasha is gentle but strong. Even the fictional character named Hero has his logic and development. All their stories inspire trust and empathy. And such details as a symbolic toy that appears in both reality and fantasy emphasize the blurred boundaries between the world of the novel and reality.
«A Hero for Me» is full of symbols, each of which has a multilevel meaning. Shadows — are not just creatures, but the embodiment of pain, fears, and the consequences of trauma. It is also a common image of vatniks, separatists, «zhduns» and Russians themselves. The station is a symbol of hope and renewal. The prohibition to talk about the past on the island is an image of silencing the trauma that does not disappear, but only deepens. All this creates complex but important points for reflection.
The novel was published by «Vihola». Like most of their books, it has a soft cover with flaps, great design, and a bright picture. It’s hard to tell that it’s science fiction from the picture, so I’ll dig into it again here, but at least the picture is not abstract and somehow hints at existing parallel worlds.
In general, I like the books of this publishing house for their quality, their paperback format does not make the book fall apart during the first reading, as sometimes happens with novels by other publishers also in paperback. Everything is done right here, the book keeps its shape, it has pleasant to the touch and high-quality paper, and easy-to-read font. They didn’t bring a lace, but you can make a bookmark out of the front flap of each edition of «Viholy». It’s very convenient and cool.
