"When Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, millions of lives changed in an instant. During the exodus to escape the military invasion, reporter Jen Stout left her job in Moscow and headed to Romania where she began to cover the human cost of Russian aggression. Her first-hand, vivid reporting brought the war home to readers in Scotland as she reported from front lines and cities across Ukraine. Night Train to Odesa is her highly readable account of that challenge."
Reviews of Jen Stout’s incredibly well-written account of her experience covering the first months of the war in Ukraine have described it as evocative, compassionate and extraordinary and, within the first few pages of this book I too was struck by the high quality of writing, the skilled use of language to paint a scene and the empathetic style as the author introduces the reader to the realities of armed conflict and its effect on ordinary people.
From the homes of those people, from the battlefield, from hospitals, underground shelters, and in cars and on trains, Stout transports the reader into a world few will ever see. It enables understanding as we learn from those who are there how their lives are affected, how resourceful survivors must become and how, although their lives have been irrevocably changed, hope remains.
A wonderful book, the author’s first. I cannot wait to read more from her.