It was compulsory reading at school and I found it ridiculous, but, years later, perhaps when I was in my late 20s, I had the feeling I had not done the book justice.
I started it five times and, in the end, only succeeded by reading it in the wrong order – starting with the poems, then reading the short prose section, and finally the rest.
My work on the Kyiv Mysteries series has greatly deepened my interest in and understanding of life in Kyiv during the civil war.
I always enjoyed coming back to this novel, which satirises army life, though I have not wanted to read it since Russia’s full-scale attack on Ukraine.
A few years later I travelled around the USSR with a tape recorder, trying to get retired Soviet officials to talk about their experiences.
