Latest news with #Endling
TimesLIVE
30-07-2025
- Entertainment
- TimesLIVE
Booker Prize 2025 longlist announced
The 13 titles longlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize have been selected by the 2025 judging panel chaired by critically acclaimed writer and 1993 Booker Prize winner Roddy Doyle. First awarded in 1969, the Booker Prize is regarded as the leading award for high-quality literary fiction written in English. 'Some of [the books] examine the past and others poke at our shaky present. They are all alive with great characters and narrative surprises,' Doyle said about the nominated novels. Doyle is joined on the judging panel by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, Chris Power, Kiley Reid and Sarah Jessica Parker. The 2025 longlist includes titles penned by authors representing four continents and nine countries: Albania, Canada, Hungary, India, Malaysia, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine, the UK and the US. It features two debut novels, Ledia Xhoga's Misinterpretation and Maria Reva's Endling. Six debut novels have won the Booker in its 56-year history, the most recent being Douglas Stuart's Shuggie Bain. According to the Booker Prize website: 'The nominated novels encapsulate a vast range of international experiences. Arguably more than any other year in the prize's history, this year's longlist boasts a truly global outlook.' The complete list of longlisted titles are: For the first time, the shortlist of six books will be announced at a public event to be held at Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall in London on September 23.
Ottawa Citizen
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Ottawa Citizen
Author Maria Reva's return to Ukraine inspired her to complete novel
In 2023, Maria Reva and her sister were on a train hurtling through a Ukrainian night toward the battle-scarred city of Kherson. They were hoping to reach their grandfather, still there in the midst of carnage. It was crisis time for Reva in more ways than one. The novel she had started to write back in Canada was in jeopardy: what she had originally envisaged as a lighthearted romp satirizing Ukraine's controversial 'romance' tours had been upended by Russian aggression. Article content Article content 'I initially felt I had two choices,' the award-winning Canadian writer says now. 'I could keep writing the novel as though nothing happened in real time. Or I could give up on it.' Article content Ultimately, she didn't give up. That return to Ukraine helped her find a way back in, and her debut novel, Endling, has now been published to international acclaim. Typical is the verdict of revered American novelist Percival Everett: 'I love works that are smarter than I am, and this is one.' He's talking about a daring, genre-bending achievement in which Reva herself becomes a recurring presence in the course of a fast-paced narrative. Article content 'I gave up on it multiple times,' she tells Postmedia from her home on Canada's West Coast. 'I honestly did not envisage any future for it beyond finishing it.' Article content In the midst of this struggle came the need to return to the embattled country of her birth. Reva was seven when she and her family emigrated to Canada in 1997. She had been back many time since — 'but I had a sense of terror when I thought of going to Ukraine this time.' Still, she would adjust to the psychology of a country under siege. Once there, as the sisters moved eastward in the hope of reaching their grandfather, 'the sense of danger became more and more normalized.' Yet danger was definitely present. Article content Article content 'On the train during the night, the conductor asked us to keep the blinds down so that we would not emit any light because trains had become a target for the Russians. The way that my sister and I thought of it was that we were in a closed moving coffin.' Article content The moment came when they could go no further. They would not reach the grandfather they loved. Article content 'It was very difficult accepting limitations on what I was capable of,' Reva says sombrely. 'I think that's why my fiction allows me the fantasy of going where I could not.' So a grandfather figure does play a seminal role in the novel she was able to complete. Article content Reva's lighter side surfaced on late-night television a few weeks ago with her cheerfully discussing the sex life of snails with NBC host Seth Meyers. She might have seemed light-years away from the horrors of Ukraine but in fact she was talking about the very same book, Endling, that had confronted her with so many challenges.
Calgary Herald
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Calgary Herald
Author Maria Reva's return to Ukraine inspired her to complete novel
In 2023, Maria Reva and her sister were on a train hurtling through a Ukrainian night toward the battle-scarred city of Kherson. They were hoping to reach their grandfather, still there in the midst of carnage. It was crisis time for Reva in more ways than one. The novel she had started to write back in Canada was in jeopardy: what she had originally envisaged as a lighthearted romp satirizing Ukraine's controversial 'romance' tours had been upended by Russian aggression. Article content Article content 'I initially felt I had two choices,' the award-winning Canadian writer says now. 'I could keep writing the novel as though nothing happened in real time. Or I could give up on it.' Article content Ultimately, she didn't give up. That return to Ukraine helped her find a way back in, and her debut novel, Endling, has now been published to international acclaim. Typical is the verdict of revered American novelist Percival Everett: 'I love works that are smarter than I am, and this is one.' He's talking about a daring, genre-bending achievement in which Reva herself becomes a recurring presence in the course of a fast-paced narrative. Article content 'I gave up on it multiple times,' she tells Postmedia from her home on Canada's West Coast. 'I honestly did not envisage any future for it beyond finishing it.' Article content In the midst of this struggle came the need to return to the embattled country of her birth. Reva was seven when she and her family emigrated to Canada in 1997. She had been back many time since — 'but I had a sense of terror when I thought of going to Ukraine this time.' Still, she would adjust to the psychology of a country under siege. Once there, as the sisters moved eastward in the hope of reaching their grandfather, 'the sense of danger became more and more normalized.' Yet danger was definitely present. Article content Article content 'On the train during the night, the conductor asked us to keep the blinds down so that we would not emit any light because trains had become a target for the Russians. The way that my sister and I thought of it was that we were in a closed moving coffin.' Article content The moment came when they could go no further. They would not reach the grandfather they loved. Article content 'It was very difficult accepting limitations on what I was capable of,' Reva says sombrely. 'I think that's why my fiction allows me the fantasy of going where I could not.' So a grandfather figure does play a seminal role in the novel she was able to complete. Article content Reva's lighter side surfaced on late-night television a few weeks ago with her cheerfully discussing the sex life of snails with NBC host Seth Meyers. She might have seemed light-years away from the horrors of Ukraine but in fact she was talking about the very same book, Endling, that had confronted her with so many challenges.
National Post
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- National Post
Author Maria Reva's return to Ukraine inspired her to complete novel
In 2023, Maria Reva and her sister were on a train hurtling through a Ukrainian night toward the battle-scarred city of Kherson. They were hoping to reach their grandfather, still there in the midst of carnage. It was crisis time for Reva in more ways than one. The novel she had started to write back in Canada was in jeopardy: what she had originally envisaged as a lighthearted romp satirizing Ukraine's controversial 'romance' tours had been upended by Russian aggression. Article content Article content 'I initially felt I had two choices,' the award-winning Canadian writer says now. 'I could keep writing the novel as though nothing happened in real time. Or I could give up on it.' Article content Ultimately, she didn't give up. That return to Ukraine helped her find a way back in, and her debut novel, Endling, has now been published to international acclaim. Typical is the verdict of revered American novelist Percival Everett: 'I love works that are smarter than I am, and this is one.' He's talking about a daring, genre-bending achievement in which Reva herself becomes a recurring presence in the course of a fast-paced narrative. Article content Article content 'I gave up on it multiple times,' she tells Postmedia from her home on Canada's West Coast. 'I honestly did not envisage any future for it beyond finishing it.' Article content In the midst of this struggle came the need to return to the embattled country of her birth. Reva was seven when she and her family emigrated to Canada in 1997. She had been back many time since — 'but I had a sense of terror when I thought of going to Ukraine this time.' Still, she would adjust to the psychology of a country under siege. Once there, as the sisters moved eastward in the hope of reaching their grandfather, 'the sense of danger became more and more normalized.' Yet danger was definitely present. Article content Article content 'On the train during the night, the conductor asked us to keep the blinds down so that we would not emit any light because trains had become a target for the Russians. The way that my sister and I thought of it was that we were in a closed moving coffin.' Article content The moment came when they could go no further. They would not reach the grandfather they loved. Article content 'It was very difficult accepting limitations on what I was capable of,' Reva says sombrely. 'I think that's why my fiction allows me the fantasy of going where I could not.' So a grandfather figure does play a seminal role in the novel she was able to complete. Article content Reva's lighter side surfaced on late-night television a few weeks ago with her cheerfully discussing the sex life of snails with NBC host Seth Meyers. She might have seemed light-years away from the horrors of Ukraine but in fact she was talking about the very same book, Endling, that had confronted her with so many challenges. Article content But snails? Really? Well, an endangered specimen named Lefty turns out to be the key player in a high-intensity scene near the end of the book. Besides, in this author's imaginative world, why shouldn't the fate of a mollusk symbolize the eternal conflict between darkness and light?
Vancouver Sun
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Vancouver Sun
Author Maria Reva's return to Ukraine inspired her to complete novel
In 2023, Maria Reva and her sister were on a train hurtling through a Ukrainian night toward the battle-scarred city of Kherson. They were hoping to reach their grandfather, still there in the midst of carnage. It was crisis time for Reva in more ways than one. The novel she had started to write back in Canada was in jeopardy: what she had originally envisaged as a lighthearted romp satirizing Ukraine's controversial 'romance' tours had been upended by Russian aggression. 'I initially felt I had two choices,' the award-winning Canadian writer says now. 'I could keep writing the novel as though nothing happened in real time. Or I could give up on it.' Get top headlines and gossip from the world of celebrity and entertainment. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sun Spots will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Ultimately, she didn't give up. That return to Ukraine helped her find a way back in, and her debut novel, Endling, has now been published to international acclaim. Typical is the verdict of revered American novelist Percival Everett: 'I love works that are smarter than I am, and this is one.' He's talking about a daring, genre-bending achievement in which Reva herself becomes a recurring presence in the course of a fast-paced narrative. Endling Maria Reva Knopf Canada 'I gave up on it multiple times,' she tells Postmedia from her home on Canada's West Coast. 'I honestly did not envisage any future for it beyond finishing it.' In the midst of this struggle came the need to return to the embattled country of her birth. Reva was seven when she and her family emigrated to Canada in 1997. She had been back many time since — 'but I had a sense of terror when I thought of going to Ukraine this time.' Still, she would adjust to the psychology of a country under siege. Once there, as the sisters moved eastward in the hope of reaching their grandfather, 'the sense of danger became more and more normalized.' Yet danger was definitely present. 'On the train during the night, the conductor asked us to keep the blinds down so that we would not emit any light because trains had become a target for the Russians. The way that my sister and I thought of it was that we were in a closed moving coffin.' The moment came when they could go no further. They would not reach the grandfather they loved. 'It was very difficult accepting limitations on what I was capable of,' Reva says sombrely. 'I think that's why my fiction allows me the fantasy of going where I could not.' So a grandfather figure does play a seminal role in the novel she was able to complete. Reva's lighter side surfaced on late-night television a few weeks ago with her cheerfully discussing the sex life of snails with NBC host Seth Meyers. She might have seemed light-years away from the horrors of Ukraine but in fact she was talking about the very same book, Endling, that had confronted her with so many challenges. But snails? Really? Well, an endangered specimen named Lefty turns out to be the key player in a high-intensity scene near the end of the book. Besides, in this author's imaginative world, why shouldn't the fate of a mollusk symbolize the eternal conflict between darkness and light? Early in the novel, we meet a dedicated scientist named Yeva whose mission in life is to track down rare species of snail and save them from extinction. She helps finance her quest by working in Ukraine's romance tour industry — dating foreign bachelors who have signed up for these ventures in the hope of acquiring a beautiful, pliable fantasy bride. Desperate for money, she finally allows her travelling RV lab to be used in a bizarre plot concocted by feminist militants to discredit the tours — and then the hell of war erupts. 'The novel was intended to be a comedic kidnapping caper, a kind of anti-romance-tour book,' Reva explains. 'That was what I was setting out to write about — that and snail conservation work in the Ukraine.' She wanted to utilize 'light humour' as a means of examining contemporary issues. The Russian invasion landed her in a creative mire 'I finally realized the only way I could keep writing the novel was to pour into it all the ambivalence I was feeling, the questions I had about myself as a writer and the role I then had as an observer of the war from abroad.' The ambivalence stands revealed on page 109 of the finished novel when Reva makes her first personal entry into its pages and shares with the reader a message to her agent: 'I was writing about a so-called invasion of Western bachelors to Ukraine and then an actual invasion happened. To continue now seems unforgivable.' But she did continue — and there would be more personal interventions in the book's narrative. She's not the first writer to rework fictional convention. Centuries ago, Laurence Sterne did it with Tristram Shandy, and more recently John Fowles, Ian McEwan and George Saunders have shown similar boldness. But here, Reva was attempting a multilayered meshing of tone and mood but, equally dangerous, of form and structure — while also ensuring the presence in her pages of living, breathing, fallible human beings. 'I was very apprehensive,' she admits with a laugh. 'I didn't know if i could pull it off. I knew that I might scare some readers.' But then the stylistically audacious Oscar-winning film, Everything Everywhere All At Once, came along and she felt safer. 'That's what made me confident enough to wrote this book in the way that I needed to write it.' Furthermore, although dealing with the darkest of subject matter, she did not stifle her innate gift for humour. She retains the sparkling satire of her early chapters lampooning the marriage tour industry, and later in the book offers the comedy of menace in satirizing to cutting effect what happens when a crew of Russian propagandists arrives to shoot a bogus documentary about the gratitude ordinary Ukrainians feel toward their Russian liberators. 'Humour has a really long tradition in Ukraine as a way to deal with difficult circumstances,' Reva says. 'It's a survival mechanism. If somebody can laugh at something bad, they can rise above it — they can take away its power over them.' As for the book's title — well an 'endling' is the last known member of a species on the verge of becoming extinct, but its use here can have wider implications. If readers come away with a sense of hope, which is Reva's fervent wish, Lefty the snail will have something to do with it. 'I'm not a religious person so I haven't found a solution for myself in dealing with the chaos and utter unknowability of the universe,' Reva says. 'But do suspect that we tell ourselves stories to cover the face of chaos and imbue it with meaning. That ultimately is what the book about. What stories do we tell ourselves in order to feel secure?'
