How do lakes, worlds, and cultures disappear, and what remains? Ukrainian writer Sofia Andrukhovych in conversation with journalist and writer Adéla Knapová and writer Jan Němec.

In partnership with Větrné mlýny.

Sofia Andrukhovych ranks among the most distinctive Ukrainian writers today. Her prose combines strong narrative with historical reflection and a female perspective. She earned a great deal of attention for her novel Felix Austria (2025), which won the award for BBC Ukraine Book of the Year and was adapted into a film under the title Devoted (Viddana, 2020). In her sprawling novel Amadoka (2020) she explores, with extraordinary sensitivity, the themes of memory, identity, and the traumas of the twentieth century, including the Holocaust, Stalinist terror, and the occupation of the Donbas. The book was widely acclaimed and won the 2024 International Hermann Hesse Prize, with the jury citing how the author “created a broad panorama of twentieth-century Ukraine in a formally rich and impressive way.” In her latest novel, Catananhe (Katananhe, 2024), which has not yet been published in English, Andrukhovych focuses on post-war Ukraine through the stories of the ordinary inhabitants of a block of flats in Kyiv. She is the daughter of renowned Ukrainian author Yuri Andrukhovych. She lives in Kyiv.

Adéla Knapová is a writer and journalist. She first caught readers’ attention with her novella The Impossibility of Zero (Nemožnost nuly, 2016), which was followed by ABC Book (Slabikář, 2017), Vanguard (Předvoj, 2019), and the auto-fiction novel Cowardly Notes from the War in Ukraine (Zbabělé zápisky z Ukrajinské války, 2023). In 2024 she published a collection of war stories titled Bloody Compote (Krvavý kompot), which she wrote during her time in Kharkiv. The book paints an authentic portrait of life in the city, which lies just thirty kilometres from the border with Russia and is subject to constant drone and missile attacks. Without pathos or politicisation, it captures the strength and fragility of the people who remain in the city, and it does not shy away from even the most sensitive issues, such as forced conscription and efforts to hide from the commission. Knapová is personally involved in helping war-torn Ukraine and regularly travels to the front lines. She is also an animal rights activist and founder of the foundation One Heart. She lives in Prague, Greece, and Kharkiv.

Jan Němec is a Czech writer, journalist, and publicist. He is the author of a biographical novel about the life of Czech modernist photographer and artist František Drtikol, A History of Light (2013), for which he received the European Union Prize for Literature. He also wrote the auto-fiction novel Možnosti milostného románu (Ways of Writing About Love, 2019), which was nominated for the Magnesia Litera Award, or Liliputin: Povídky z války (Liliputin, Stories from the War, 2022). Together with Petr Vizina, he compiled a book of interviews on spirituality titled Znamení neznámého (Signs of the unknown, 2021). Since 2022 he has been editor-in-chief of the HOST literary magazine.