Endling - by Maria Reva (Hardcover)

About the Book

"A surrealist novel that chronicles the travails of three Ukrainian women and one extremely endangered snail through the travails of capitalism, foreign invasion, romance, and survival"--

Book Synopsis

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 the impact of war.

"This novel turns corners and tables. I love works that are smarter than I am, and this is one."- Percival Everett, author of National Book Award-winner James

"Funny and smart. This is essential reading."- Ann Patchett, add bestselling author of Tom Lake

"Pulses with a powerful sense of urgency and relevance to our times."-Lara Prescott, author of The Secrets We Kept

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.

Review Quotes

"Full of suspense and humor, while never letting go of what is really happening in the lives of Ukrainian people at home and abroad...A noteworthy literary achievement and also a good story, sure to be widely discussed and enjoyed."
- Kirkus (starred review)

"Astonishing... this inspired and urgent novel is bound to make a major splash."
- Publisher's Weekly (starred review)

"In Maria Reva's all-around brilliant novel Endling, the fate of some snails serves as a harbinger for the fate of Ukraine. The book is funny and smart, full of science, longing and adventure, all the while reminding us what the world stands to lose, and what it has already lost. This is essential reading."
- Ann Patchett, bestselling author of Tom Lake

"Maria Reva has gifted us a lifeline. Wild, exhilarating, heartbreaking--Endling is a tale of perseverance and survival for dark times.
- Anelise Chen, author of Clam Down: A Metamorphosis

"Ironic, sharp, and wise, this is a big (meta)fictional achievement."
- Karan Mahajan, author of National Book Award finalist Association of Small Bombs

"Maria Reva has made a fantastic novel. It's about so much and yet is laser focused. A scientist who funds her research with sex work, a wild and, at the same time, sensible and normal move. This novel turns corners and tables. I love works that are smarter than I am, and this is one."
- Percival Everett, author of National Book Award winner James

"Heartbreaking, hilarious, profound, and vital, Maria Reva's debut novel Endling is a brilliant, visceral journey that pulses with a powerful sense of urgency and relevance to our times."
-Lara Prescott, author of The Secrets We Kept

"Maria Reva's dazzling debut novel Endling will take you on a ride you will never forget. Into this brilliant stew of a novel the fearless Reva stirs Ukraine's "romance tour" industry, feminist activists, a kidnapping caper, the fine science of snail conservation, the eternal mysteries of family dynamics, and Europe's first major land war since World War II. Only a supremely talented writer could handle material like this, and Reva-who seems incapable of writing a dud sentence-shows she's more than up to the task. Open this book, fasten your seatbelt, and brace for impact."
- Ben Fountain, National Book Award finalist and author of Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk

About the Author

MARIA REVA was born in Ukraine and grew up in Canada. She holds an MFA from the Michener Center at the University of Texas. Her fiction has appeared in The Atlantic, McSweeney's, Best American Short Stories, and elsewhere, and has won a National Magazine Award. She also works as an opera librettist.