Carbide explores the underbelly of the Ukrainian smuggling industry. The protagonist, Tys, a merciless yet loving parody of Ukrainian nationalism, concocts a hairbrained scheme to dig a tunnel from the imaginary western Ukrainian city of Vedmediv to Hungary and force the European Union to grant Ukraine admission by smuggling its entire population into a member-country. Hilarity inevitably ensues, along with danger, when Tys, the would-be ‘Moses of Ukraine’, recruits a gang of local smugglers, including a latter-day Icarus determined to fly over the border and a femme fatale who traffics human organs. This timely novel offers a funny, yet tragic take on increasingly urgent topics such as the meaning of borders, nationalism, and European identity.
Author
Ukrainian poet, essayist, and translator. He grew up in Vynohradiv, in South-Western Ukraine, and then enrolled at the Uzhhorod National University, where he studied Ukrainian Philology. His second master's degree in Balkan Studies was received from Warsaw University in 2014. Lyubka currently lives in Uzhhorod. Lyubka is the author of four collections of poetry, one book of short stories, Saudade, and six novels. His novel Carbide depicts the daily life of smugglers in Zakarpattia Oblast. He also translates prose and poetry from Polish, Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian, and English. Additionally, he is a columnist for Ukrainian and European journals, Newspapers and media outlets, Nowa Europa Wschodnia / New Eastern Europe, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Den'', zbruc.eu, and kontrakty.ua,
