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Start giftingThe War Came To Us
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Learn moreBloomsbury presents The War Came To Us by Christopher Miller, read by Craig Van Ness.
A WATERSTONES AND IRISH TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR
A breathtaking exploration of Ukraine’s past, present, and future, and a heartbreaking account of the war against Russia, written by a leading journalist who has lived and worked in Ukraine for over a decade.
'Vivid… Shocking… [Miller] brings a seasoned, personal perspective to his account of both the 16-month conflict and its wider roots.'
Daily Telegraph
'A beautiful blend of memoir, reportage and history...superb.'
Irish Times
'...powerful and insightful...Miller provides a human dimension to a bloody conflict.'
Kirkus Reviews
When Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his unprovoked, full-scale invasion of Ukraine just before dawn on 24 February 2022, it marked his latest and most overt attempt to brutally conquer the country, and reshaped the world order. Christopher Miller, the Ukraine correspondent for the Financial Times and a foremost journalist covering the country, was there on the ground when the first Russian missiles struck and troops stormed over the border. But the seeds of Russia’s war against Ukraine and the West were sown more than a decade earlier.
This is the definitive, inside story of its long fight for freedom. Told through Miller’s personal experiences, vivid front-line dispatches and illuminating interviews with unforgettable characters, The War Came To Us takes readers on a riveting journey through the key locales and pivotal events of Ukraine’s modern history. From the coal-dusted, sunflower-covered steppe of the Donbas in the far east to the heart of the Euromaidan revolution camp in Kyiv; from the Black Sea shores of Crimea, where Russian troops stealthily annexed Ukraine’s peninsula, to the bloody battlefields where Cossacks roamed before the Kremlin’s warlords ruled with iron fists; and through the horror and destruction wrought by Russian forces in Bucha, Bakhmut, Mariupol, and beyond.
With candor, wit and sensitivity, Miller captures Ukraine in all its glory: vast, defiant, resilient, and full of wonder. A breathtaking narrative that is at times both poignant and inspiring, The War Came To Us is the story of an American who fell in love with a foreign place and its people — and witnessed them do extraordinary things to escape the long shadow of their former imperial ruler and preserve their independence.
Christopher Miller is a writer and journalist based in Kyiv, Ukraine and Brooklyn, New York. He appears frequently on major US television news programmes, including those on CNN and MSNBC. He was interviewed for MSNBC’s documentary film Headliners: Paul Manafort, and HBO’s The Perfect Weapon. Chris also appears regularly on podcasts and radio programmes on the BBC, NPR, CBC, Monocle, Crooked Media and elsewhere.
Since 2022 he has been lead correspondent in Ukraine for the Financial Times. He was previously a world and national security reporter for POLITICO and a Ukraine correspondent for BuzzFeed News. Before that he spent five years as a correspondent for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Kyiv. He has lived and worked in Ukraine for 13 years. His writing and journalism has been published in POLITICO Europe, The Times, the Guardian, The Atlantic, CNN, Vice News, the Telegraph, the Independent, The Outline and GlobalPost.
As an editor at Ukraine's Kyiv Post newspaper, Christopher was part of the team that won the Missouri Honor Medal Winner for Distinguished Service in Journalism for coverage of the Euromaidan Revolution, Russia's annexation of Crimea and the war in eastern Ukraine.
Reviews
A beautiful blend of memoir, reportage and history...superb: a pulsing, immersive narrative of boots-on-the-ground reporting. The War Came To Us is an important book, and a testament to the importance of quality journalism. Miller is dogged in his reporting, and a fine writer. He has the right amounts of courage, intellectual honesty, chutzpah, self-effacing humour and talent, reminding this reader of AJ Liebling’s superlative collection of second World War writings. A vivid, engaged and engaging series of vignettes and impressions of the period up to the early days of the war... What a passionate, colourful journey –by turns inspiring and horrifying – it turns out to be. Vivid… Shocking… [Miller] brings a seasoned, personal perspective to his account of both the 16-month conflict and its wider roots. An eye-opening and deeply touching inside story of the country's long fight for freedom against Russian aggression. Christopher Miller has been an indispensable guide to what's been really happening in Ukraine for a decade or more, and his writing has helped show the world the true face of a country that is too often lied about. When I want to know what is happening in Ukraine, I turn first to Chris Miller's reporting. Whether it's the latest information from the front lines of Russia's war against Ukraine, insightful analysis on political manoeuvrings in Kyiv, or understanding into what the average Ukrainian is thinking about current events, Miller always has the inside track. Now in his riveting book The War Came to Us, this foremost expert on the region takes us back over the last 12 years, providing the history, the culture and the context to help us understand where Ukraine is today and what might come next. A must-read for those who want to get beyond the headlines. Christopher Miller knows Ukraine with unmatchable depth and a fierce intimacy — way before it became the eye of the global storm he was living and studying in this critical country. There isn’t a village he hasn’t visited and a front line he hasn’t crossed. The world is belatedly waking up to the importance of Ukraine. And Miller is the ultimate guide. A penetrating account of the reality of Putin’s war on Ukraine... With powerful stories and insightful background, Miller provides a human dimension to a bloody conflict. War correspondent Miller’s heart-pounding debut describes in gritty detail the frontline fighting and key events preceding Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine…this is frontline reporting at its finest. Written with love, respect, and the critical eye of a reporter, the book evinces deepdedication to an adopted homeland... The War Came to Us is a detailed, personal, and engaging account of recent transformative events in Ukraine’s history. Fascinating. It’s Chris’ capacity for both narrative restraint and warm-hearted, unpretentious observations of his surroundings that make him stand out among many chroniclers of modern Ukraine in both its horror and its glory. …Christopher Miller brings the war and its impact on Ukraine’s people back to the front page, sparing no details, and in so doing provides one of the best and most insightful narrative histories yet published of the war against Ukraine… Christopher Miller's book not only takes you to the fields of the Russian–Ukrainian war, but also to the recent history of Ukraine, without knowledge of which it is difficult to understand and appreciate what is happening now. The War Came To Us is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand how this war is changing Ukraine and Ukrainians, and how it is making dramatic changes to the world order. The War Came to Us is the single-best account of how Ukraine found itself at the center of Russia's imperial ambitions – and the best book yet written on the Ukrainians who are fighting to make their country free once more. In his rendering of the contrast between war and peace, peace and war, Christopher Miller has given us an invaluable record of Ukraine’s past and present. [Miller] is particularly good at recounting the chaotic, precarious early days of the war. The War Came To Us [is] a deeply reported yet personal and nuanced account of the long war in Ukraine, by a brilliant and collegiate correspondent. Miller...does what a veteran journalist does best — he allows the people to speak. Miller’s insights come with the curiosity that any good journalist should possess, and it is clear that in his years of work he has engaged with people wherever he goes in Ukraine to establish reliable sources as well as to try and understand their perspective better. Expand reviews