Eva Skaletskaya “You don’t know what war is”, Review: A powerful story of flight from Ukraine

You don’t know what war is is the story of 12-year-old Eva Skaletska about fleeing her Ukrainian homeland during the Russian invasion. She lives with her grandmother Irina in Kharkov on the Russian border. But after her life of bowling and birthday cake, school and friends has given way to shelter from basement shelling, Skaletskaya is planning a trip to Budapest, Hungary (“I keep saying, what a beautiful city!”) and finally Dublin. Ireland, where she lives now.

Skaletskaya’s story, told in the form of a personal diary, depicts the horrors of war more vividly than any dispassionate news report. This was acknowledged by Channel 4 in March, when it was first published after meeting with Skaletska on the way to Uzhgorod.

The report, published in October, is interspersed with headlines from various newspapers and excerpts from the WhatsApp group of the Skaliets School. Here, friends share wacky videos along with important information: “Guys, I’m fine, now they fired halfway, but they didn’t hit us.”

As Ukraine’s Fatigue sets in, Skaletskaya’s story and her ability to nudge readers into the urgency of her country’s ongoing plight is more important than ever. She may have fled Ukraine, but her diary makes us imagine a world where this did not happen.

Hearing that 6,595 people have died (according to the latest confirmed figure of civilian casualties in Ukraine) must be 6,595 times sadder than the news of the death of one person, but such breathtaking devastation can seem incomprehensible – until you remember that each number represents a person: What does she like to do? What did the world lose by losing her?

When we hear about the author’s cherished piano lessons or her pink toy cat Chupapela (“I don’t know why I called her that and what it even means, but it just stuck”), the book puts tragedy on a human scale. not a distant world stage.

In the same way, the fears of Skaletskaya’s classmates, some of whom are still in Kharkov, remind us that war is boring and uncomfortable, but also scary: it was still very dirty and very dusty.”

Although Skaletskaya’s diary can be compared to the diary Anne Frank kept in Amsterdam during World War II, the parallels do not go beyond general outlines. Although both find themselves in the middle of conflicts that change the world almost overnight, as well as teetering on the brink of adolescence and death, the strength of Skaletska and Frank’s stories lies in their uniqueness.

What they have in common is their impact on the audience: most readers won’t know first hand what war is, but stories like yours remind us of the value of that ignorance.