Grey Bees: A captivating, heartwarming story about a gentle beekeeper caught up in the war in Ukraine

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He decides to set off for Crimea not only to find a safe outing for his bees but also to find Akhtem, a Crimean Tatar who was Sergeyich’s roommate at a beekeepers’ conference twenty-five years earlier. The reader looks at the life of those living in Grey Zones of the war-torn Donbas as well as occupied Crimea through Sergeyich’s emphatic eyes.

Bejewelled by expressions in Crimean Tatar, which neither Sergeyich nor most readers are able to understand, the passages of Grey Bees set in Crimea are filled with a sense of the loss of a culture we failed to comprehend and to protect from destruction.Sketching the life of only one family, Kurkov hints at the stories of so many Crimean Tatars who have found themselves forced out of their homes once again .

We may look at it from time to time on the nightstand and feel an obligation to continue — critics have applauded it — but still we find ourselves unable to shake that resistance. As the summer season approaches, Sergeyich becomes most concerned about his bees and giving them space far from noise caused by shelling. This is an oddly charming novel despite the subject matter, and Kukov’s humor and the up-close, introspective narrative make this a rather comforting read.

They spend many good moments together until a Ukrainian soldier suffering from PTSD attacks Sergeyich, smashes the windows of his Lada, and leaves a single faint ax mark on the bottom of one of the beehives. Eben dieses Beschäftigen des Autors mit den einfachen Bürger*innen, ihrem Leben und ihrem Umgang mit dem Krieg hat mich sehr berührt. He makes the big decision to leave Little Starhorodivka but his wanderings, though significant and symbolic, are peripatetic. My little vignettes are a meditative representation of books I love reading and which bring me comfort, and of places I visit to find calmness and solace, especially during anxious times. The bees are a nice touch too—not too front and center, but the low-level care and attention they need the kind of obligation that helps keeps Sergeyich focused.