With the war raging, there is no room for reconciliation.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Anna-Lena Laurin, a reporter for Dagens Nyheter, has become one of the most important and respected voices among Swedish readers, thanks to her direct style and sharp analytical skills.

In addition to her on-the-ground reporting in Russia and Ukraine, Laurin wrote a series of personal essays about the situation in both countries during that period. Together, these essays form a comprehensive story about the war, about Putin and Zelensky, about the invasion and the struggle for freedom, about grief and hope, about propaganda, about the victims, and about attempts to ignore the truth and escape guilt.

It is also a story about language and freedom of expression, and about what it is like to be a war correspondent, a mother, and a woman in a country ruled by propaganda and hate speech.

Just over a year after the war began, she was expelled from Russia. She moved to Kyiv and started a new life there, in a city constantly bombed, but striving to maintain a semblance of normalcy. It is a form of resistance.

As the war rages on, with no room for reconciliation, a selection of Lauren’s articles from the newspaper DN alternates with new material, shedding light on the realities of life in wartime. How, in many ways, life continues as normal, despite everything being different. From life on the front lines to ballet classes in Kyiv, this book allows us to understand and feel the war, a war that has returned to invade Europe once again.