We could consider Sergeyich’s complex morality as a participant of war, and the palette of ethical decisions that he has to make in the course of this book. During his time in Crimea Sergeyich grows close to Akhtem’s family and decides to set up his hives next to Akthem’s.

Von den ehemaligen Dorfbewohner*innen sind nur noch er und sein Feindfreund Paschko übrig - und natürlich die Bienen von Sergej. This is an apt depiction of the novel, a war that occasionally rattles windows but not much else despite knowing that it is a horrible thing. The town has mostly been destroyed and consists of only two roads, one named Lenin and the other after Taras Shevchenko, a Ukrainian poet and symbol for Ukrainian nationalism. Sergeyich's experiences over the course of the novel are mostly of the fairly simple sort, and Kurkov wisely stays mostly away from the overtly political .Es ist ein dünn besiedeltes Gebiet in dem sich das fiktive Dorf befindet, in dem nur noch zwei Männer geblieben sind. If you want to learn more about Ukraine, as well as to better understand the cultural and ethnic diversity of this land, including Crimean Tatars, I would highly recommend you get a copy of this novel. Also, I hope that these little vignettes from the world I inhabit will bring you some feelings of peace and comfort as well as they will have a calming effect on you by cultivating a loving and gentle space for all readers. And while Sergeyich doesn’t see himself as concerned with the war, he ends up becoming more involved than he would like to, all the same.

Sergeyich's experiences over the course of the novel are mostly of the fairly simple sort, and Kurkov wisely stays mostly away from the overtly political, Sergeyich very careful as to how he positions himself. I never discovered a body, nor did I hear distant shelling, but the familiar details of that walk, the feeling of it, made the contrast of war so palpable. If, in the gray zone, people get along and help one another despite inhabiting a denuded, post-apocalyptic landscape, Crimea turns out to be the opposite. marad aztán a pici, frontvonalak közé szorult donbaszi faluban, a "szürke zónában" össz-vissz két ember, két egykori haragos, Szergej és Pászka, akik megpróbálják élni a maguk megszokott életét a megszokhatatlan körülmények között.

Those villages in Grey Zone have been deserted by most people with exception for a few who decided to stay in their homes. It also follows the classic quest narrative with some intricate character growth from being an isolationist to inserting himself as a helper. Wherever this wisdom was visible and comprehensible to him, he would compare its manifestations with human life—always to the detriment to the latter. Silence of course is an arbitrary thing, a personal aural phenomenon that people adjust for themselves.