The Dreamtime - by Mstyslav Chernov

About the Book

A fusion of documentary and psychological thriller inspired by true events conceived and written over an eight-year period. Drawing on the Indigenous Australian concept of dreamtime, the novel explores a society's collective experience of war and conflict and is based on real events that the author, a war correspondent and photojournalist, witnessed during the war in eastern Ukraine and the migration crises in southern Europe over recent years.

Book Synopsis

A fusion of documentary and psychological thriller inspired by true events conceived and written over an eight-year period. Drawing on the Indigenous Australian concept of dreamtime, the novel explores a society's collective experience of war and conflict and is based on real events that the author, a war correspondent and photojournalist, witnessed during the war in eastern Ukraine and the migration crises in southern Europe over recent years.

Review Quotes

"This is one of the most unique works of fiction, though largely biographical, that I have read. The realm between reality and dreams begins to fracture more and more the further one gets through the book, which brings it to a dreamlike state of the four major characters who are involved. The author, who is a journalist, incorporates his experience on the frontlines filing stories for people to read in their homes while at the same time taking a multi-layered look at Ukraine and the war that is bringing it to the brink of existential existence."

-Kevin Winter, Tulsa Book Review

"Scene by scene, Chernov vividly describes battles fought in the streets, the bombing and shelling of apartments, and the dreams of those on the front lines, physically and psychologically. ... [T]his timely novel from a Ukrainian author excels at examining the connection between reality and dreams and exploring the effects of war on the human psyche."

-- Library Journal

"This ambitious structure gives the novel a disorienting quality that underscores themes of trauma and loss . . . First published in Kyiv in 2020 in conjunction with a visual art exhibition on media and culture, Chernov's now translated novel will resonate even more today, given the current escalation of Russia's ongoing attack on Ukraine."

-- Booklist

"A powerful psychological thriller about borderline situations in life, hopes and dreams. Written against the backdrop of the war, before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the story acquires an additional passionate and humanistic significance."

-- Andrey Kurkov, author of Grey Bees

"The Dreamtime is a dark, multi-layered, modern Ukrainian war novel. It demonstrates that war doesn't only occur on the front line, but that it quickly and relentlessly corrodes society, breaking down its structure. Chernov's dense, labored prose is tightly intertwined like blades of grass after a storm. But when engaged with, these interweaving shadows and voices gradually become clear and transparent to the reader."

-- Serhiy Zhadan, author of The Orphanage

"An ambitious yet highly readable book, Mstyslav Chernov's The Dreamtime builds on the tragically rich personal experience of this acclaimed and fearless photographer whose deeply moving images from the world's conflict zones, and especially from the war in his native Ukraine, are now seared in our memory. This novel helps us understand how life goes on in wartime--and how it changes us irrevocably. An impressive literary debut that successfully transfers Chernov's keen eye and psychological insight to the page."

-- Vitaly Chernetsky, University of Kansas

"Kaleidoscopic and deeply unsettling, The Dreamtime depicts how the routine of war dissolves boundaries between civilian and soldier, care and violence, waking life and nightmare. Chernov has written an expansive, thought-provoking Ukrainian novel for the early post-Maidan era."

-- Sonya Bilocerkowycz, 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellow; author of On Our Way Home from the Revolution: Reflections on Ukraine (2019)

"The Dreamtime is about survival, living through war, mental illness, and alcoholism in a world where even love has jagged edges. The parallel storylines make it a page turner as we look for moments of hope and vulnerability. This is the creation of a new history."

- Olena Jennings, author of Temporary Shelter (Cervena Barva Press, 2021)

"Chernov is a singular voice writing about Ukraine today, and The Dreamtime is essential readi

About the Author

Mstyslav Chernov is a Ukrainian war correspondent, filmmaker, photographer, and novelist known for his coverage of the Ukrainian revolution, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the wars in Iraq, Syria, and Nagorno-Karabakh, and Taliban rule in Afghanistan after U.S. withdrawal, as well as for his art installations and exhibitions. Chernov is an Associated Press (AP) journalist and the President of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers (UAPF). In addition to being a finalist for the Livingston Award (2019) for his work on the civil unrest in Belarus and the Rory Peck Award (2017) for his coverage of the Battle of Mosul, he has won several prestigious awards, including two Royal Television Society Awards for his coverage of the downing of flight MH17 (2015; 2016), and the Georgy Gongadze Prize (2022), the Knight International Journalism Award (2022), the DW Freedom of Speech Award (2022), a Bayeux Calvados-Normandy Award (2022), the Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award for Courage in Journalism (2022), a Free Media Award (2022), and an Oliver S. Gramling Award (2022) for documenting the siege in Mariupol as one of the few remaining international journalists in that city, as captured in his AP article 20 Days in Mariupol: The Team that Documented the City's Agony (March 22, 2022, AP) as well as the AP and FRONTLINE documentary special 20 Days in Mariupol. He was named Ukrainian Photographer of the Year in 2013 and 2015. He was born in Eastern Ukraine and is typically based in Germany.

More information on Chernov's journalism and exhibitions can be found on his website mstyslav.com and his Instagram instagram.com/mstyslav.chernov.