I Will Die in a Foreign Land

“An impressive feat of empathy… In this novel about the fight for a fatherland, the relationships between fathers and mothers and their children are spotlit in sometimes shocking ways… I Will Die in a Foreign Land is also overwhelmingly full of music: the Captain’s piano playing that sustains protesters; the bells of the monastery; and through the novel’s choral structure, a swirl of private melodies that come together in surprising harmony from start to finish. The title itself comes from a western Ukrainian song, traditionally performed by kobzari, the wandering bards “liquidated” by Stalin in 1932. Their ghosts are ever-present in this rich, multilayered story. It will resonate with a wide range of readers, and provide illuminating insight for those hoping to learn more about the current conflict.”
—Jennifer Croft, The Guardian

“This novel can only be described as epic… What Pickhart reminds us is that every face in the crowd of a conflict has its own intimate story, and has its own reasons for believing what they believe. The danger we all face is forgetting that democracy is actually the agreement to peacefully disagree… I Will Die in a Foreign Land opened my heart and my mind in new ways.”
—Jennifer Morrison, A3C Reads

“Political leaders often behave as if they have no idea what a human life even is, as if none of them had mothers or know the sound of a piano or remember the weight of one hand in another. Kalani Pickhart’s I Will Die in a Foreign Land is a wild and prismatic refutation of that tragedy—the ongoing disaster of greed and domination and war.”
—Catherine Lacey, Young Lions Fiction Award judge, and author of Pew, The Answers, and Nobody Is Ever Missing, in Lit Hub

“Kalani Pickhart’s timely debut novel, I Will Die In a Foreign Land, is about the 2014 Ukrainian revolution which provided a pretense for Russia to annex Crimea. The story follows the experiences of several characters whose lives intersect as the country’s political situation deteriorates. There’s a Ukrainian-American doctor, an old KGB spy, a former mine worker, and others, and these episodes are interspersed with folk songs, news reports and historical notes. The effect—kaleidoscopic but never confusing—provides an intimate sense of a country convulsing, mourning, and somehow surviving.”
—CBS News, “The Book Report: Recommendations from Washington Post critic Ron Charles”

“I tore through I Will Die in a Foreign Land. It’s terrific. I’ve been following the alarming news about Putin’s machinations along the Ukrainian border, but nothing has given me such a profound impression of what Ukrainians have endured as this intensely moving novel.”
—Ron Charles, Washington Post