Twardoch, Szczepan Die Nulllinie

Roman aus dem Krieg

As one of the few Western authors, Szczepan Twardoch repeatedly travelled to the front lines in Ukraine. He brought back material, travelled with soldiers, witnessed the horrors of war and found himself in danger. He has condensed his experiences into a novel that breathes the spirit of the books by Remarque, Jünger and Hemingway. Kon goes to war. He volunteers for the Ukrainian army and soon experiences reality, the contrast between wealthy Kyiv and the desolate Donbass, the gap between official images and the true conditions of the army, with its indifference and nepotism. On the front line, the zero line, in a patch of land cut off from the Dnipro, he and his companions search for meaning and light amid drones, the wounded and death. Here, on the zero line, brotherhood and courage take on new meaning, reason gives way to intuition, superstition to knowledge. There are volunteers and those who never wanted to fight, and their only connection to the old world is the internet via Starlink. Kon thinks of his grandfather, who fought in the World War, and also seeks to escape his despair with his lover Zuja and increasingly senses that this war will never end for him. The struggle is a lifelong theme in Szczepan Twardoch's work. Here he recounts the current war in Europe with captivating authenticity and epic force, looking, with Thucydides, into a 21st century marked by war. An existential reflection on violence, courage, freedom and what it means to be human.