The Telegraph's Top 50 Books of 2023 Include Two About the War in Ukraine

The Telegraph has published a list of the 50 best books of the year, including the work of Ukrainian historian Serhii Plokhy, "The Russian-Ukrainian War" and the novel by British journalist Andrew Harding, "A Small, Stubborn Town: Life, Death and Defiance in Ukraine."

The list was published on The Telegraph's website.

Serhii Plokhy - "The Russian-Ukrainian War"

"Perhaps the most definitive account of the history leading up to today's war in Ukraine, from the author of Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy," writes the publication about Plokhy's book.

In his book, Plokhy analyzes the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine and offers his version of the answer to the question of why Putin dared to start the bloodiest war in Europe since World War II. The historian also analyzes the phenomenon that allows Ukrainians to resist effectively against one of the world's largest states and predicts further consequences of the war for the world.

"From Ukraine's perspective, it is primarily a well-known war for independence, a desperate attempt by the country [...] to defend the right to exist," the annotation to Plokhy's book says.

Serhii Plokhy is a Ukrainian and American historian, a specialist in the history of Eastern Europe, a professor of Ukrainian history at Harvard University, and the director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.

Andrew Harding - "A Small, Stubborn Town: Life, Death and Defiance in Ukraine"

The novel "Small Stubborn Town: Life, Death, and Defiance in Ukraine" tells readers about the city of Voznesensk, Ukraine. Russian military wanted to occupy the city, but Ukrainians were determined to resist them.

"Arriving in Voznesensk to report, I met Svitlana, a local resident whose story inspired me to write about unbroken people defending their native city," emphasized Andrew Harding.

Andrew Harding is a British journalist and writer who covered the collapse of the USSR, parliamentary coups in Russia, as well as events in Ukraine, Chechnya, Azerbaijan, Abkhazia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Burma, Darfur, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and other places.

The list of the best books of 2023 was topped by the book "France on Trial: The Case of Marshal Pétain" by Julian Jackson.

The day before, Irish writer Paul Lynch won the prestigious Booker Prize with his book Prophet Song.