Rock, Paper, Grenade - by Artem Chekh (Paperback)

About the Book

"When Tymofiy is five years old, his small family in Cherkasy, Ukraine grows by one. Not with the birth of a baby sister or brother, but with the appearance of Felix-mentor and tormentor, enemy and friend-Tymofiy's grandmother's sometime-boyfriend. "Who are you?" Felix screams in the depths of a confused and drunken rage at all who cross his path, his memories of the Soviet-Afghan war clouding his eyes and senses. "Who are you?" Tymofiy asks himself as he drifts through the streets of his hometown, searching for love and protection, for a better, happier way of life. A gritty, realist depiction of Ukraine and the post Soviet world, this book offers an affecting yet honest look into the life of someone suffering from PTSD. It is a story of growing up without much hope for a better future, and yet intense moments of connection and kindness persist. Just when things begin to seem insurmountably dark, a friendship begins, a kind word is said, or a hand reaches out and opens the curtains, letting in a little light"--

Book Synopsis

Winner of the 2021 BBC News Ukraine Book of the Year Award
Rock, Paper, Grenade is a gritty and bald bildungsroman, a lilting picaresque of a life lived in the shadow of someone else's war.

A realist depiction of Ukraine and the post Soviet world, this book offers an affecting yet honest look into the life of someone suffering from PTSD. It is a story of growing up without much hope for a better future, and yet intense moments of connection and kindness persist. Just when things begin to seem insurmountably dark, a friendship begins, a kind word is said, or a hand reaches out and opens the curtains, letting in a little light.

When Tymofiy is five years old, his small family in Cherkasy, Ukraine grows by one. Not with the birth of a baby sister or brother, but with the appearance of Felix--mentor and tormentor, enemy and friend--Tymofiy's grandmother's sometime-boyfriend. "Who are you?" Felix screams in the depths of a confused and drunken rage at all who cross his path, his memories of the Soviet-Afghan war clouding his eyes and senses. "Who are you?" Tymofiy asks himself as he drifts through the streets of his hometown, searching for love and protection, for a better, happier way of life.

Review Quotes

"Rock, Paper, Grenade is not a novel that attempts to be idealistic or cynical about father-son relationship. Instead of depicting Felix as entirely villainous, Chekh opts to sketch him as is a tragic figure, simultaneously threatening and utterly removed. In this, homophobia and even traditional masculinity are seen as forces of intense social isolation, turning familial relationships into battlegrounds. At a time when anti-queerness in the US has reached frightening extremes, and as war exacerbates some of the cruelest and most brutal aspects of gendered existence, a translation of this novel has never been more crucial, reminding its readers of the way that hegemonic gender can reduce everything to a fear-based performance." --mk zariel, Asymptote

"'He's like a guide... to the kingdom of the dead, ' someone says, early on, of one of Rock, Paper, Grenade's many unforgettable characters. And Rock, Paper, Grenade is, in its own inimitable way, also a kind of guide--not to the kingdom of the dead, but to the blazing anti-kingdom of the living: not the story of kings, despots or heroes, but the story of soldiers and drunks, neighbors and grandmothers, starving dogs and beloved poisoned cats, in all their mortal vulnerability and complexity. A tender, sharply-imagined coming-of-age novel, full of clarity and bleak humor: a book as shrewd about historical damage as it is about personal repair; as piercing about post-Soviet loneliness as it is about our most ancient pull to salvage and connect. A funny, haunting and beautiful book." --Elaine Castillo, author of America Is Not the Heart and forthcoming novel Moderation (summer 2025)

"Artem Chekh's Rock, Paper, Grenade is a tough novel about a tough time in Ukraine, yet the author's tense, electric prose--rendered with icy clarity by Olena Jennings and Oksana Rosenblum--communicates more than the harshness of the first post-Soviet decades. Chekh understands the lives shaped and misshaped by that era, cares about them, and we find ourselves caring as well. The people you meet here will stay with you."--Boris Dralyuk, translator and author of My Hollywood and Other Poems

"War trauma, once it has taken root inside a person's (or a society's) soul, can never be expunged entirely. This is a vital book for anyone wishing to understand Ukraine, but its insights are relevant wherever the violence of the past intertwines with hopes for the future."--Uilleam Blacker, Associate Professor in Ukrainian and East European Culture, University College London

"Few novels render the tension and uncertainty of the post-Soviet era so vividly, while still finding room for unexpected warmth." --Kate Tsurkan, The Kyiv Independent

About the Author

ARTEM CHEKH is a Ukrainian author and soldier. He is the author of some sixteen books, including Absolute Zero, and his work has been translated into English, Polish, Czech, and Russian. Chekh is currently serving in the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

OLENA JENNINGS is the author of the poetry collection The Age of Secrets (Lost Horse Press, 2022) and the novel Temporary Shelter (Cervena Barva Press, 2021). Her translation with the author of Yuliya Musakovska's poetry collection The God of Freedom is forthcoming from Arrowsmith Press.

OKSANA ROSENBLUM is an art history researcher and translator based in New York City. She was born and raised in Ukraine but has called NYC her home since 2003. Her poetry translations from Ukrainian, essays, and book reviews appeared in National Translation Month, Versopolis, Ukrainian Weekly, Asymptote, Bracken, and Arrowsmith. She co-edited a bilingual volume of the early poetry of Mykola Bazhan, an important and prolific 20th-century Ukrainian poet (Academic Studies Press, 2020).