The Knot

Early morning, February 24, 2022. A white RV leaves Kyiv. In the cab are three women: Anastasia, barely out of adolescence; her older sister, Solomiya; and Yeva, who has dedicated her life to snail conservation. In the back, squeezed between refrigerators and lab equipment, are thirteen men in cheap tuxedos, Westerners who have come to Ukraine looking for an approximation of love. They don’t know they have been kidnapped, just as the women don’t know about the Russian tanks pouring across the border ahead. When the first missiles explode, the travellers wonder if they hear fireworks. Within a few days, one of their number will be dead, one will be grievously injured, and one will have been reborn as a national hero.

Anastasia and Solomiya are the daughters of Iolanta, a legendary feminist activist and the founder of Komod (a lightly fictionalized version of the women’s rights organization FEMEN). When Iolanta suddenly cuts off all contact with them, they decide to...