Truly heartbreaking. The translation was magnificent and the story ripped my heart into pieces - any sort of narrative where family is separated in turbulent times and is trying to find each other really gets to me so it took a while to read as I had to take breaks

This one was rough for me . A very well written book , however the horrible way humans behave sickens me, and this bring all of that to light.

In my bid to read books from all over the world, I happened to pick this up.
This is a story of a man who is living amongst ongoing wars, which divide the loyalties of everyone in their country, blurring boundaries to the extent that in the story, there is no clear-cut indication of who is winning and who the 'other' is. It was well done as a plot point, but the ambiguity got a bit much after a while. I did not know exactly what to think of the people that we encounter in the story.
It begins with a man heading to work to find out that it has been disrupted. At this point, he decides to rescue his nephew, who is currently residing in an orphanage. It is a long, exhausting, dangerous and circuitous journey. The weariness comes through, and it is not an easy read.
There are many intriguing discussions of how people behave based on their position in the actual conflict versus being bystanders caught in the cross-hairs. It is a very debatable set of events but not one I would be able to read again. The language used matches the frustration of everyone involved, with people cursing on every alternate page. Despite all this, I am glad I picked something this different from my usual read, completed it and took away something about a whole other country and the lives of ordinary people who have to live with uncertainty on a daily basis.

I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

A teacher travels though the Ukrainian war zone to retrieve his nephew from the orphanage. The main character is not at all likeable, but you can relate to him - he kept his head down throughout life and now he is forced to deal with situations outside of his control. The war zone resembles a post apocalyptic movie, the narration is extremely descriptive. Not an easy read but well worth it.

The Orphanage is a fast-paced and deeply disturbing journey with Pasha in Ukraine, quite upsetting and also quite timely.

We all want to live and let live, but for Pasha, who embarks on a journey to hell in order to collect his nephew, Sasha, from the orphanage, he has been pushed to the brink and has landed on the front line. Not knowing his enemies from his saviours, the good from the bad and the bad from the really bad. Not knowing the real inner strength and resilience both he and Sasha discover they possess..

I read this book all tucked up in a cozy warm cottage in Dartmoor over Easter break. The fire roared with blankets aplenty and a belly full. I couldn't help but feel immensely guilty for what I had and they didn't. I can't even imagine a day of the turmoil that they (or anyone who lived or died through that) faced. It was an eye opener and I am grateful to Serhiy Zhadan for sharing such atrocities. I was happy to finish the book as it was incredibly upsetting, I can't fault the author though, just history.

Thanks to #Netgalley for the ARC.

Set in contemporary (2015) eastern Ukraine, in the Donbas, this nightmarish portrayal of a country at war makes for a gripping read. Pasha is a 35-year old teacher of Ukrainian and a man determined not to get involved with the conflict. He’s always remained aloof from politics and buried his head in the sand. But circumstances force him to notice what’s going on when he has to rescue his nephew from the eponymous orphanage, which is in occupied territory. It’s a terrifying journey and over the course of 3 days we accompany Pasha as he makes his way to Sasha and then back home. Every moment they face difficulties and dangers and it’s in no way certain that they will make it back safely. Chaos surrounds them, destruction everywhere, trigger-happy soldiers on both sides of the conflict, confusion, violence and suffering. The whole book is an unflinching look at what war does to a civilian population who often don’t even know what all the fighting is about. Although the book is set in the Ukraine it has a universal application and it’s not necessary to understand the conflict – for war hurts civilians in the same wherever it occurs. Comparisons to Cormac McCarthy’s The Road are inevitable but I think misplaced. In that novel there has been some sort of apocalypse. In this one it’s a man-made conflict, the like of which happens all over the world, all the time. This, for me, made the book even more affecting. My only quibble with the book is the title – I don’t understand why the Ukrainian word “internat”, which means boarding school, is translated as orphanage. Sasha is not an orphan and I don’t see what is gained by suggesting he is. However, that’s a small point and overall I found this a deeply troubling depiction of a nation at war and a compelling and immersive read.

This is very good. The book won some awards and has been out for many years, and has many reviews and +1000 ratings on Goodreads. I can't add anything helpful so I'll just recommend it for literary fiction fans. It will stick with readers for quite a while.

Thanks very much for the review copy!!

My God, what a book. Is it a novel about a journey through a dystopian hell-scape? No. This particular hell-scape is in the real world and it has a veracity that gripped me from the first pages. A thirty-five year old teacher in eastern Ukraine, a man who has tried his best to keep his head down and to pretend life will go on as always even as the terror of war engulfs his town, goes on a trip to retrieve his nephew from a care facility in now-occupied territory. He makes this trip not from any sense of heroism, but because, at the start of his journey, he just can't grasp how terrible things are going to get. How lawless and unnatural and uncivilized things are about to get. The accumulation of detail is stunning and harrowing, I would say the prose is "beautiful" but it's not over-pretty in any way--it's perfect, it's immersive, and it never veers from the understanding and experiences of one man as he navigates a senseless landscape and tries to hold on. The reading experience reminds me somewhat of Imre Kertész's novel FATELESSNESS for the way it focuses relentlessly on one person's experience, and through that narrow lens, it reveals so much more. This novel is a must read for both its literary masterfulness and its historical/contemporary significance.

Thanks to Netgalley and Yale University Press for a copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The Orphanage is an active journey into saving small pieces of good from an evil world. Pasha's journey is both physical and emotional as he tries to first get to his nephew and then to get them both out of an invasion zone.

The physical journey gripped by the descriptions of warfare on a civilian area and from the civilians' reactions. The descriptions are detailed enough to make the reader feel the immense danger, but the author doesn't go so far into detail as to bore or make the extreme mundane. Variation in character actions were often surprising, but still believable. The plot stayed active, which lended to the warfare atmosphere.

The emotional journey was often told in scattered memories, long-winded trains of Pasha's thoughts, and what Pasha did and didn't tell his nephew. I loved how the latter revealed Pasha's character. I also liked Pasha's character. He doesn't see himself as a hero trying to save everyone, but he feels this responsibility and desperation to save his nephew. While there's a POV shift at the end, the book focuses on us knowing Pasha inside and out rather than on a large cast of characters. I like to call this kind of book a character dive. When done well, it's probably one of my favorite kind of books. The Orphanage does it well.

There are a few passages where Pasha's thoughts or memories slowed down the plot a little too much for me. Also, I didn't love the POV shift at the end.

I'd recommend the Orphanage to anyone who likes character dive style books or gaining a perspective on human action during crises.

What a great book thoroughly enjoyed throughout read it super quick didnt want to put it down....would definitely recommend this book to others

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.
Translated books can be difficult for me to review. Overall this book was good. I do feel like it didn't flow as well as it could have but I'm not sure if that's due to the translation or not.
Pasha's journey is quite suspenseful and somewhat frightening throughout the story.