Fiction
June 2023
There is a Land Beyond Perekop
by Anastasia Levkova
Crimea. It was here that the main character of the novel spent her childhood, youth and met first love. It was here that she realized that she is Ukrainian. Neither grandfather, lieutenant colonel of the KGB, nor Russian blood in his veins stood in the way of her self-identification. The novel intertwines Crimean Tatar culture, Ukrainian history and family skeletons in closets like an ornament. Together with the main character and her friends, Aliye who is a Crimean Tatar, and Alyona who is a Ukrainian, the reader travels a long way from their childhood to the present — the occupation of the peninsula by Russia. «There is a land beyond Perekop» is an ode to Crimea. Not to its natural beauty and uniqueness, but to people. This is an attempt to open the mainland for Crimea, and Crimea for the mainland. After all, there is land both there and there. It should be known and stitched.
