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Taras Shevchenko goes by many names (from the pathetic Kobzar to the friendly She), and he is constantly present in our everyday life (from school textbooks to TikTok trends, from pretentious monuments to graffiti on revolutionary barricades). He is one of the most recognisable Ukrainian figures in the world, as we have heard many times before. He dominates our cultural space, and, unfortunately, this fact alone can discourage people from addressing him.

What motivates us to read Shevchenko? Perhaps the desire to understand why his works, written almost 200 years ago, still have such a powerful impact? This book provides a simple and convincing answer to that question. Each chapter is an attentive and unhurried reading of one of Shevchenko's famous works ("The Caucasus," "A Cherry Orchard by the House," "When I was thirteen," "Dream," "I was reaping wheat on the landlord's land...") with an insightful and witty commentary by Volodymyr Dibrova. The author is a translator, literary critic, and lecturer at Harvard University, where he teaches Ukrainian language and literature to students from around the world. In this collection of essays, avoiding simplification and total idealisation (as well as complex sentences), he "translates" some realities, contexts, and reflects on the sources of the writer's poetic influence. This book aims to give you a fresh look at the famous texts, and after re-reading them, to find your own Shevchenko and better understand yourself as Ukrainians.

The book is available in the Yakaboo app for free reading in the PrivatBank library.