Yuri Andrukhovych

The work of the novelist, poet, and essayist Yuri Andrukhovych is permeated with his thoughts on what Europe means and his own particular upholding of European values, which he sees as a single set of ideas with many manifestations that must constantly be defended. His most recent book to be published in Spanish, Pequeña enciclopèdia de lugares íntimos (Small Encyclopaedia of Intimate Places, Acantilado 2023) is, in his own words, a “brief manual of geopolitics and cosmopolitanism”. With this, he offers a personal journey through the past and present of some of the continent’s cities, from Prague and Berlin to Kyiv and Odessa, giving a portrait, which is both humorous and insightful, of Europe and its history.

As an intellectual who is committed to his country, Yuri Andrukhovych shares, in this conversation, his thoughts on the present conflict in Ukraine, and also his singular perspective on what it means to be European today.