Editorial Content for Endling
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Reviewer (text)
Although it starts off somewhat traditionally, the beginning of Maria Reva's ENDLING does lay the groundwork for the experimental structure that follows by throwing a variety of seemingly unrelated strands at readers. The novel opens with a snapshot of the overall mundanity of life in wartime: “In the cities, buildings still stood whole…. Beyond the cities, fields. Yellow and brown, pockmarked by farmhouses, sliced by trenches for irrigation. Beyond the fields, sky…. Not much fell from it yet, the occasional bird.”
The scene then shifts to an interaction between two young women in the last remaining days before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Yeva is a scientist studying snails, embarking on the somewhat discouraging project of preserving “endlings,” the last remaining specimens of their species, and (perhaps inevitably) chronicling their demise. With research funding dwindling, Yeva has turned to a stint on the so-called romance tours that bring Western bachelors to Ukraine in search of young brides.
"It's rare to find a novel that addresses writing about wartime with both playfulness and pathos, but Reva manages exactly that. She surprises readers at nearly every turn, often injecting humor that is equally off-kilter and unexpected."
Eighteen-year-old Nastia is the daughter of Iolanta Cherno, a notorious Ukrainian activist and leader of the group Komod, who is best known for taking off her clothes to reveal anti-Putin slogans. Iolanta, a critic of the romance tour industry, has disappeared. Nastia, accompanied by her sister Sol, who serves as her interpreter, also has signed on as a “bride” but has an ulterior motive on this particular tour. It will call attention to the exploitative nature of the industry and maybe attract Iolanta's attention to boot.
One wouldn't think that snail science, marriage tourism and troops amassing on the border would hang together, but somehow it does, even after --- midway through the first section --- Maria Reva herself shows up as a character. Like the author, she's living in Vancouver as the war breaks out, and she's terrified for the safety of her grandfather, who is holed up in his apartment in war-ravaged Kherson. Best known as a short story writer, she's also struggling to finish her first novel (which may or may not be the book we're reading). Might one goal serve the other, or vice versa?
As Reva breaks up the narrative and puts it back together again (including, at one point, offering several versions of the same chapter with slightly different outcomes), she shakes readers awake and urges them to pay attention.
It's rare to find a novel that addresses writing about wartime with both playfulness and pathos, but Reva manages exactly that. She surprises readers at nearly every turn, often injecting humor that is equally off-kilter and unexpected. But although ENDLING is often a very funny novel, it also (fittingly) is studded with moments of violence, devastation and loss. Despite Reva's narrative doubts about her own abilities as a novelist, she does manage to pull together these different strands in a way that is both shocking and satisfying, offering a singular vision of the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Teaser
Ukraine, 2022. Yeva is a loner and a maverick scientist who scours the country’s forests and valleys, trying and failing to breed rare snails, while her relatives urge her to settle down. Yeva already dates plenty of men --- not for love, but to fund her work --- entertaining Westerners who come to Ukraine on guided romance tours believing they’ll find docile brides untainted by feminism and modernity. Nastia and her sister, Solomiya, are also entangled in the booming marriage industry, posing as a hopeful bride and her translator while secretly searching for their missing mother, who vanished after years of fierce activism against the romance tours. Together they embark across hundreds of miles. But their plans come to a screeching halt when Russia invades.
Promo
Ukraine, 2022. Yeva is a loner and a maverick scientist who scours the country’s forests and valleys, trying and failing to breed rare snails, while her relatives urge her to settle down. Yeva already dates plenty of men --- not for love, but to fund her work --- entertaining Westerners who come to Ukraine on guided romance tours believing they’ll find docile brides untainted by feminism and modernity. Nastia and her sister, Solomiya, are also entangled in the booming marriage industry, posing as a hopeful bride and her translator while secretly searching for their missing mother, who vanished after years of fierce activism against the romance tours. Together they embark across hundreds of miles. But their plans come to a screeching halt when Russia invades.
About the Book
Set in Ukraine, an eccentric scientist breeding rare snails crosses paths with sisters posing as members of the marriage industry to find their activist mother. As Russia invades, they embark on a wild journey with kidnapped bachelors and a last-of-its-kind snail. This darkly comic novel explores survival, love and the impact of war.
Ukraine, 2022. Yeva is a loner and a maverick scientist who lives out of her mobile lab. She scours the country’s forests and valleys, trying and failing to breed rare snails, while her relatives urge her to settle down and finally start a family of her own. What they don’t know: Yeva already dates plenty of men --- not for love, but to fund her work --- entertaining Westerners who come to Ukraine on guided romance tours believing they’ll find docile brides untainted by feminism and modernity.
Nastia and her sister, Solomiya, are also entangled in the booming marriage industry, posing as a hopeful bride and her translator while secretly searching for their missing mother --- a flamboyant protestor who vanished after years of fierce activism against the romance tours.
So begins a journey of a lifetime across hundreds of miles: three angry women, a truckful of kidnapped bachelors, and Lefty, a last-of-his-kind snail with one final shot at perpetuating his species.
But their plans come to a screeching halt as Russia invades. In a stunningly ambitious metafictional spiral, ENDLING brilliantly balances horror and comedy, drawing on Reva’s own experiences tracking her family’s delicate dance of survival behind enemy lines. As fiction and reality collide on the page, Reva probes the hard truths of war: What stories must we tell ourselves to survive? To carry on with the routines of life under military occupation? And for those of us watching from overseas: can our sense of normalcy and security ever be restored, or have they always been a fragile illusion?
ENDLING is a tour de force from an author on the cutting edge of fiction, weaving a story of love, loss, humor and devastation that only she can tell.
Audiobook available, read by Max Meyers and Saskia Maarleveld
