Книга 1. The City

Valerian Pidmohylnyi’s The City was a landmark event in the history of Ukrainian literature. Written by a master craftsman in full control of the texture, rhythm, and tone of the text, the novel tells the story of Stepan, a young man from the provinces who moves to the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv, and achieves success as a writer through a succession of romantic encounters with women.

At its core, the novel is a philosophical search for harmony in a world where our intellectual side expects rational order, whereas the instinctive natural world follows its own principles. The resulting alienation and disorientation reflect the basic principles of existential philosophy, in which Pidmohylnyi is close to his European counterparts of the day.

Книга 2. The Girl with the Teddy Bear

The Girl with the Teddy Bear is one of V. Domontovich's most famous and extravagant texts.

The events of the novel unfold in Kyiv in the 1920s. Ipolit Varetsky, a chemical engineer and teacher, meets the Tykhmenev family and becomes a tutor to their daughters — serious Lesya and daring Zina. It is Zina who captivates him with her independence and avant-garde spirit. She craves freedom and challenges social norms. But is a romance between two such different people possible?

This Kyiv-based text introduces readers to the lives of city dwellers and immerses them in the atmosphere of the city as it was a hundred years ago.