Eugenia Kuznetsova

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Eugenia Kuznetsova's fiction has topped Ukraine's bestseller lists since her 2020 debut. Her debut novel, Ask Miechka (2021), received a Special Mention at the European Union Prize for Literature in 2022 and has sold roughly 100,000 copies in Ukraine, an exceptional figure for literary fiction. Her PhD in international and intercultural studies, earned at the University of Deusto in Spain, centred on magical realism – a lens that shows directly in the blend of the everyday and the strange running through her novels. 

Her fiction returns repeatedly to a single house and family, using irony rather than sentiment to examine what it means to stay, to flee, or to come home. Ask Miechka follows two sisters who return to their grandmother's house for a summer that forces them to confront a decision they've been avoiding. Its follow-up, The Ladder (2023), follows a Ukrainian migrant in Spain as he hosts his extended refugee family amidst the war.

Beyond her own fiction, Kuznetsova translates in the other direction too. Her Ukrainian translations range from Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals, a biography of Abraham Lincoln, to genre romance novels – a versatility that mirrors the tonal range of her own writing, which moves between rigorous research and unguarded comedy. Her non-fiction includes the ethnographic cooking guide Cooking in Sorrow (2020), illustrated by thirty Ukrainian artists, which treats Ukrainian food and lifestyle as a lens for national self-irony, and Language as a Sword (2023), on language policy under Soviet rule. 

European Union Prize for Literature

Eugenia Kuznetsova Eugenia Kuznetsova

Craft

Eugenia Kuznetsova: Conversations across the fence Eugenia Kuznetsova: Conversations across the fence

By Eugenia Kuznetsova

Translated by Yulia Lyubka and Kate Tsurkan

Jaya Bhattacharji Rose. Confessions of an avid bibliophile

Interview with Ukranian writer Eugenia Kuznetsova Interview with Ukranian writer Eugenia Kuznetsova

By Jaya Bhattacharji Rose

This interview is facilitated by EUPL and funded by the European Union.

Chytomo

A manual for interacting with Ukrainians. Three bestsellers from Eugenia Kuznetsova A manual for interacting with Ukrainians. Three bestsellers from Eugenia Kuznetsova

By Tetyana Petrenko

Eugenia Kuznetsova’s books are among the bestsellers in Ukraine. Her texts are lively, poignant, and ironic. Her audience is hungry and eagerly awaiting her new novel. Having appeared on the market in 2020, Kuznetsova quickly gained popularity among the Ukrainian audience and is now confidently conquering the world. So, who is Kuznetsova, and why do readers love her books so much?