BBC lists book by Ukrainian writer Viktoriia Amelina, killed in Russian attack, among top 40 reads for 2025

The British BBC editorial office recognized the book by the deceased Ukrainian writer Viktoriia Amelina as one of the 40 most exciting and recommended it for reading in 2025.

BBC reports this.

As noted, the book War & Justice Diary: Looking at Women Looking at War will be published on February 18, 2025, by the American publication St. Martin's Press.

The foreword to the book by the Ukrainian writer was written by the famous Canadian writer Margaret Atwood.

Amelina's work tells the stories of women who helped find the occupation diary of the tortured children's writer and volunteer Volodymyr Vakulenko.

In particular, it mentions:

• Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviychuk,
• lawyer and soldier Yevheniia Zakrevska,
• human rights activist Larysa Denysenko,
• librarian Yuliia Kakulia-Danyliuk.

The book contains testimonies from the war recorded by Viktoriia Amelina, interviews, photographs, and diaries.

"Amelina went from writer to war reporter when Russia invaded her home country in 2022. Sadly, she died in a missile strike in July 2023 at the age of 37. Still, her photographs, diaries, and interviews with women have been collected in War & Justice Diary: Looking at Women Looking at War," the BBC noted.

For reference:

Viktoriia Amelina is a Ukrainian writer and public figure, winner of the 2014 Coronation of the Word national award for lyrics. Her novels "The November Syndrome, or Homo Compatiens," "A House for a House" and the children's publication "Someone, or the Water Heart" have received many literary distinctions and awards.

After the start of the full-scale invasion, Viktoriia Amelina was involved in documenting Russian war crimes as part of the human rights organization Truth Hounds. In particular, as the PEN Club indicates, she found the diary of the writer Volodymyr Vakulenko, who was killed by the Russian occupiers in the liberated Izium region.

The writer also worked on an English book, War and Justice Diary: Looking at Women Looking at War, about women documenting Russian war crimes.

Amelina was organizing the first literary festival in New York in the Donetsk region, which took place in October 2021.

In July 2023, Viktoriia died on July 1 from injuries sustained in the Russian strike on Kramatorsk.

The Ukrainian writer was posthumously awarded the Prix Voltaire in December 2024. This award is given to writers for their outstanding contribution to the fight for freedom of speech.