Night Train to Odesa: Covering the Human Cost of Russia’s War by Jen Stout has won this year’s Highland Book Prize.
It is the account of the Shetland journalist’s first-hand experience of reporting from Ukraine at the on-set of the Russian war.
Jen Stout with her book Night Train to Odesa.
It was selected by a judging panel from a shortlist of four titles.
Judges included: Jen Hadfield (poet and essayist), Cynan Jones (novelist and short fiction writer) and Peter Mackay (poet, lecturer and broadcaster)
Jen Hadfield said: “The most moving aspect of this book is that, despite harrowing first-hand experiences of the invasion, misery is not the prevailing mood. Ukrainian trauma and suffering are more than balanced by hope, creativity, resilience and expression of identity. How she manages to write a book so celebratory astonishes me.
“Stout lifts a book that could so easily be about death into a book about life. She bears witness bravely and unashamedly. It’s writing at the most human level, deeply moving and important.”
Peter Mackay commends the book for it’s first-person account and “the world she evokes”.
“It felt a privilege to be taken to some of these people and places.”
The winner of the Highland Book Prize.
This annual award celebrates the finest published work that is created in or about the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. The prize aims to recognise the literacy talent of the region, and the rich and diverse work inspired by its culture, heritage and landscape.
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