CONTRA SPEM SPERO

In Pyskir Bilak’s novel, a Ukrainian woman finds renewed purpose after being separated from her husband against her will.

Countless Ukrainians will surely find aspects of Nadia Pikun’s life story familiar. It’s a grueling narrative marked by forced separations—first, from her parents during World War II, who temporarily place her with a kindly Carpathian couple, Anton and Natalia Rosan. Nadia endures a similar situation during the 1960s, after she and her new spouse, Michael Pikun, are arrested while trying to flee Hungary. Although the nation is called a true Eastern Bloc “success story,” its fearful citizens still must be careful to discuss political matters outdoors, in hushed tones. Swiftly and brutally, the system pries the young couple apart; Nadia spends nearly a decade in Lviv’s Lonsky Street Prison, and Michael serves an equally hellish sentence in Kazakhstan. It’s an experience that so scars him that he feels as if his relationship with Nadia “happened in another life.” As the story unfolds against the backdrop of major events, including the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the couple’s paths cross again, and Nadia eventually makes a bid for the Ukrainian presidency. How that comes to pass forms the emotional core of the story, and the novel’s title, taken from a Lesia Ukrainka poem (translated as “I Hope Against Hope, I Hope”), gives voice to the protagonist’s strength to endure. Readers will find such sentiment to be instantly relatable, especially as Pyskir Bilak’s novel leads them through the tragedy of Ukraine’s ongoing struggle to avoid Russian domination. Overall, it’s a powerful examination of the true meaning of freedom, and the courage required to assert that today can be better than yesterday.

A novel that offers a timely reminder of how the human spirit can flourish, even in the most difficult circumstances.