Mondegreen: Songs about Death and Love

This novel tells the story of Haba Habinsky, a refugee from Donbas, who has moved to Kyiv at the beginning of the Ukrainian-Russian war. His physical displacement–​​and subsequent conscious adoption of the Ukrainian language–puts him in a state of disorientation, during which he is forced to question his beliefs. This novel illustrates how people undergo radical transformations and how these changes affect their interpersonal relationships and cultural identification.

Mondegreen: Songs about Death and Love is Rafeenko’s first novel translated into English, which was shortlisted for the Shevchenko National Prize in 2021.