It's almost like a sort of supernatural retelling of the conflict that's meant to reflect

how supernatural this feels to the people living there.

What can fiction tell us about life and war in Ukraine?

The critic Jennifer Wilson will be here to talk about two new books.

There wasn't really anything he was going to find out about himself that was going to

improve things and that the secret to finding happiness was to turn his lens outward.

The writer Ben McGrath became fascinated by a man traveling the country by waterways.

He'll be here to talk about his new book, River Man.

Plus, my colleagues and I will talk about what we've been reading and Liz Harris will

have a report from the field.

This is the Book Review Podcast.

It's April 8th.

I'm John Williams.

A brief editor's note due to the pace of the news.

I spoke with Jennifer last week on April 1st before widespread reports of the atrocities

in Bucha and other developments in Ukraine.

Our interview has not been edited to reflect that news and any other most recent developments.

The critic Jennifer Wilson joins me now.

She's a contributing essayist to the book review where she writes about a wide variety of subjects.

And a review on the cover of this week's book review is of two books, both written in

Russian and translated into English, Lucky Brakes, a short story collection by Yavgenia

Belorussits, translated by Eugene Ostechewski, and Gray Bees by Andrej Kirkov, translated

...