I Will Die in a Foreign Land

Winner of the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction AwardBest Book of the Year – New York Public Library, Cosmopolitan, Independent Book Review’Pickhart’s story is powerful, boldly imaginative, rich in history and feeling, charged with events that have occurred since it was written – and which summon up the same force of the history that compelled an American author to write about this “foreign land”.’ The Times2014 Kyiv, Ukraine. The city is poised on a knife-edge as tensions mount around a corrupt government’s increasing ties to Russia. As protests erupt across the city, the fates of four individuals come together. Katya is a Ukrainian-American doctor stationed at a makeshift medical clinic treating wounded protesters; Misha is an engineer originally from Pripyat, near Chernobyl, grieving the death of his wife; Slava is a fiery young activist whose past hardships steel her determination; Aleksandr Ivanovich, a former KGB agent, climbs atop a burned-out bus at Independence Square and plays the piano.In this dazzling, inventive debut novel – set during the ‘Revolution of Dignity’ – Kalani Pickhart weaves together a rich tapestry of voices to create a moving story about beauty, love and survival during tumultuous times