The Hopak Equation

«The Hopak Equation» by Ukrainian writer Lyosha Palkich carries the subtitle «about a war without war». In this parable-novel, a southerner, a family man, and a kind-hearted person, is forced to go and fight the northerners to earn money for his son’s salvation. But what kind of war is this? «The inhabitants of the North and South were one people in ancient times...» The massacre initiated by the government is not needed by anyone — it is not fought for an idea or to protect loved ones but out of coercion or for money. The metaphorical nature and tension of the novel evoke the texts of the Strugatsky brothers and speak of a painful and hopeless choice: the most precious thing you have or your conscience.