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His next novel, Your Life Without Me, will be published in 26.

He reported for The Guardian from both Kiev and Moscow in the 1990s and has been writing about the war in Ukraine for the LRB

and speaking about it on his podcast since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

That was a thousand days ago.

In the latest issue of the paper, he writes about visiting

Kharkiv last month. Hello, James, and thank you for joining me. Thank you for having me.

Quite a lot has happened since you went to Kharkiv and since your peace went to prayers.

There was a very big Russian attack on Ukrainian infrastructure at the weekend and Biden the

Biden administration has approved the use of long-range missile attacks by Ukraine against Russia

but let's talk first about Kharkiv the city seemed very empty is one of the things that comes

across very clearly from your piece yes it's it's one of those situations where you go with a certain idea in mind about what the

main issues facing the people are. And as you are there, you gradually become aware that

something completely different is going on.

And I was right in my expectations in the sense that the city is being bombarded every night,

...