War is a great destroyer of memory, both individual and collective. What role does literature play in the face of oblivion and destruction? What do we risk when we lose memory, identity and history? Amadoca was an ancient lake in Eastern Europe, depicted on medieval maps before mysteriously disappearing in the seventeenth century. This vanished lake gives its name to the latest novel by Ukrainian writer Sofia Andrúkhovitx, who, with war as its backdrop, turns it into a metaphor for the danger of erasing entire worlds and cultures. Ukraine's tragic history becomes the starting point for a broader reflection on what a society remembers, what it erases and the ways in which violence continues to exert its force long after the events themselves have passed. How can we rebuild a consciousness mutilated by oblivion, stitching together a shared history from its scattered fragments?

A novelist, translator and journalist, she has established herself as an essential voice for understanding the upheavals shaping Ukraine and, more broadly, the history of Eastern Europe. In this conversation she reflects on what it means to write in the midst of destruction, the place of writing in the face of personal, historical and political collapse, and the responsibility of preserving collective memory.

This activity is part of the CCCB’s ‘Talks for Secondary School Students’ sessions and requires advance registration.

Free admission. Limited capacity.