This is an automatically translated description

We are used to the stability of geographical maps and the inviolability of borders. When in the spring and summer of 2014 the borders of the state suddenly began to be redrawn in a new way, it came as a shock to most Ukrainians - the majority who believe that Ukraine is part of a civilised European space with clearly established legal norms that are binding. However, the attempt to move the state borders, no matter how adventurous it may seem in the 21st century, was successful. Perhaps, it was due to the successful combination of various manipulative technologies. That is, not so much because of the armed aggression of a neighbouring country (although it is hard to deny), but because of the clever use of information resources that blurred the distinction between truth, half-truth and fiction. This clearly demonstrated the power of symbolic capital, which is the modern information system, i.e. the capital of culture."

"As for the choice of works for analysis, it was determined by three criteria. Firstly, we focused on the top writers who have a significant impact on public opinion and are able to concentrate the key issues of our time. Secondly, the works that have caused the greatest public outcry and are actively discussed and debated in the public sphere have been selected. Thirdly, the author does not renounce subjectivity, so he also left a niche for his own choice, dictated by private taste or a sense of relevance. In any case, the book will discuss the works of Sofia Andrukhovych and Yuriy Andrukhovych, Serhiy Zhadan, Volodymyr Lys, Nadiya Morikvas, Volodymyr Rafeenko, Vasyl Shklyar, and others. They cannot be ignored when it comes to the mental topography of Ukrainian localities, despite the fact that there are numerous other (perhaps no less eloquent and accurate) examples of this cultural practice in contemporary literature.

The literary topography of the locality is presented in three projections. In the first section, the author focuses on the characteristic diagnosis of «memory places» (P’ers Nora), which embody the mechanisms of cultural development - not only space, but also time. The third chapter deals with the phenomenon of problematic places or «-not-place» (Marc Auger): deprived of properties, they condemn a person to a similar renunciation of his or her own identity. Finally, the first and third chapters of the book are separated by a dotted zone of war, particularly in its hybrid quality, which cannot be specifically defined. Thus, places alternate with non-places, the real specificity of the map is replaced by symbolic and imaginary locations, and geography is necessarily combined with history. At least, this is the image of the world offered by fiction, because it is primarily about humans and human conceptions of space, not about political or geodetic maps. In this human world, the winds, storms, and hurricanes are completely different from those in nature-no less spontaneous and no less destructive, but different. And if the reader has the feeling that we are now unwittingly in the epicentre of one of these elements, then in fiction he or she will find fertile ground for identifying, understanding, and comprehending this feeling." (Yaroslav Polishchuk, from the foreword)