“No One Talks About the War” is based on a series of everyday conversations, mainly between the author and people she meets, and occasionally, conversations she overhears. It is written from an extraordinary place at a crucial inflection point—Ukraine in the middle of a protracted fight for its very existence. The author specifically avoided politicians and famous figures, choosing instead to let cab drivers, pensioners, and local workers speak freely. The narrative follows a journey from the relative peace of the western regions to the front lines, where life is measured in days and hours, exploring themes of language, history, and the steadfast commitment of a people facing an uncertain future.
Pub date: October 1, 2026
Pre-order on Amazon
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—Zinovy Zinik
“Reminiscent at times of Voltaire’s Candide, Nina Kossman’s remarkable new book presents war not as a heroic spectacle but as a lived reality, shaped by misunderstandings, contradictions, and sometimes confusing human encounters. Most striking is the narrator’s unforced sincerity: through a series of poignant vignettes, the book becomes not only a journey through a wartime Ukraine but an unexpectedly revealing meditation on identity, perception, and the difficulty of truly understanding others.”
—Maxim Matusevich
“As I turned the pages and encountered small snippets of a life centered in a conflict zone, I could not help but feel the gravity of life. There were encounters that made me gasp just the same as there were ones that made me sit in silence and ponder what had just happened. … Overall, if you are looking for insight into the recent Ukrainian conflict and want to get that insight from someone outside of the mass market media, this will help.”
—Mathew Lloyd
