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Serhii Loiko: The novel “Flight” tells about the war thousands of miles away that came to your home

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The new novel “Flight” by war correspondent Serhii Loiko is about an investigation of who and why shot down Boeing MH17 over Donbas. The protagonist is a “corrupt former cop” who lost his family in the crash, and now wants to find the perpetrators and avenge them. The idea of the book originated in the 1990s, and the war in Donbas inspired its completion. The author spoke about this at his presentation held at Ukraine Crisis Media Center. “I have mulled over the idea of this book for 17 years. It starts with the explosions of houses in Moscow in 1991. Then the protagonist spends the rest of his life searching for the killer of his family and ways to take revenge. Then there were many wars, I worked 24 hours a day. Then the Russian-Ukrainian war began. The novel ‘Airport’ spilled out of me, I had to write it. It came out raw. And this is a completely different book. This is absolute fiction based on real events,” said Serhii Loiko.

“Flight” is intended to draw Western readers’ attention to the war in Ukraine, because by and large they are not concerned at all about it. “This is a version. This is not an investigation. This is a version of what happened and, I think, it has a right to exist. It was important for me to show an ordinary man, not a hero. Even less than ordinary: he committed crimes, lied, engaged in corruption. And he, like many people in the world, did not care what happened in Ukraine. Although the person had lived at a distance tens of thousands of miles from the place where Boeing crashed, the war reached his home. The West does not want to read about someone else’s war. We present the book that will hook a reader, who as well as the protagonist does not care, and arouse his interest,” explained Mr. Loiko. He has received three proposals for screen adaptation of his book, two of them are from the United States.

According to critics, the novel represents a huge gallery of “Russian world” portraits. “My creative method is to imagine the stuff but not the fluff. I am a journalist who has seen many things. The whole book consists of dozens of nonfictional stories. I would like you to see this picture and believe it,” noted the author of the novel.

While writing the novel, Mr. Loiko consulted with many people: from a “crowned thief” to the air defense general. “Tremendous work has been done. A lot of people read the book and advised me. Serhii talked both with the military and bandits, as well as ’cops’ It appeared to be very bright and significant. There are no words to describe its taste. It should be read,” said Dmytro Kyrychenko, president of the publishing house “Bright Books.” The first edition of the novel is 5,000 copies. The book is available only in Russian so far, but it will be translated into Ukrainian until September.