Endling

A Novel

By: Maria Reva

Narrated by: Max Meyers, Saskia Maarleveld, Maria Reva

LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE • WINNER OF THE GORDON BURN PRIZE • WINNER OF THE ATWOOD GIBSON WRITERS' TRUST FICTION PRIZE • LONGLISTED FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD • SHORTLISTED FOR THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE • FINALIST FOR THE GOVERNOR GENERAL'S LITERARY AWARDS

Set in Ukraine, an eccentric scientist breeding rare snails crosses paths with sisters posing as members of the marriage industry to find their activist mother. As Russia invades, they embark on a wild journey with kidnapped bachelors and a last-of-its-kind snail. This darkly comic novel explores survival, love, and hope in times of encroaching darkness.

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: THE WASHINGTON POST, THE NEW YORKER, NPR, GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY, THE GUARDIAN, LIBRARY JOURNAL

“Startling and ambitious.”—New York Times • “Virtuosic.”—NPR, Fresh Air • “Brilliant and heart-stopping.”—Los Angeles Times

Ukraine, 2022. Yeva is a loner and a maverick scientist who lives out of her mobile lab.She scours the country’s forests and valleys, trying and failing to breed rare snails, while her relatives urge her to settle down and finally start a family of her own. What they don’t know: Yeva already dates plenty of men—not for love, but to fund her work—entertaining Westerners who come to Ukraine on guided romance tours believing they’ll find docile brides untainted by feminism and modernity.

Nastia and her sister, Solomiya, are also entangled in the booming marriage industry, posing as a hopeful bride and her translator while secretly searching for their missing mother, who vanished after years of fierce activism against the romance tours.

Together they embark across hundreds of miles: three angry women, a truckful of kidnapped bachelors, and Lefty, a last-of-his-kind snail with one final shot at perpetuating his species. But their plans come to a screeching halt when Russia invades. In a stunningly ambitious and achingly raw metafictional spiral, Endling brilliantly balances horror and comedy, drawing on Reva’s own experiences as a Ukrainian expat tracking her family’s delicate dance of survival behind enemy lines. As fiction and reality collide on the page, Reva probes the hard truths of war: What stories must we tell ourselves to survive? To carry on with the routines of life under military occupation? And for those of us watching from over-seas: Can our sense of normalcy and security ever be restored, or have they always been a fragile illusion?

Endling is a tour de force from an author who weaves a story of love, loss, humor, and devastation that only she can tell.

Is the audio in order?

Can’t check with the physical copy yet, but so far the audiobook seems not in order. Part 2 (still less then half way through the book) is the author talking about her publications, this book, and her grandfather. After that follows quick ending of the story (that the bachelors were let free). Then — Acknowledgements. Then — Part 3, continuation of the main story. Very confusing.

Very interesting story full of surprises. .

Three excellent women readers (including the author), and one mawkish, sentimental man who annoyingly overdramatizes most of his lines.

If you have ever been displaced…

I am currently living with a family of Ukrainian war refugees. I volunteered to share my home with them because I have been a displaced person, I have been entirely removed from my culture, my way of seeing the world, and from my ability to understand my place in the world with confidence. This book so perfectly touched on every experience I ever had around doubt and displacement, loss and separation, starting over, and not being certain of reality. She has written this book in an unusual and raw way, but if you have experienced loss of identity and displacement, you will understand this book. I am also deeply grateful for the insights. She gave me into Ukrainian culture. At last, I understand why the mom and dad will not allow the child to get the glasses the optometrist says he needs! And that love is not praise; a loved one is differentiated by criticism and cooking! Ha! I would read the essay on dark humor and Ukraine, too. I think this book is a masterpiece.

Good story

It is well-written and full of surprises. I look forward to her next book.

Intriguing/confusing

I enjoyed the use of multiple voices for the characters in the audio version, and the wild storyline of a young woman doing research on snails of a busload of young American men seeking naïve Ukrainian brides.