Petrichor: The Scent of the Earth After Rain
Author: Volodymyr Rafeyenko
Translator: Mark Andryczyk
Translation: Ukrainian to English
Petrichor: The Scent of the Earth After Rain by Volodymyr Rafeyenko is a profound meditation on war, memory, and the fragile boundary between life and death. Set amid Russia’s ongoing assault on Ukraine, the novel traces the intertwined lives of two families whose worlds are shattered and remade by violence. Maria, whose son Petro is born on the day the war in Donbas begins, searches for stability across cities and borders, while Viktor, a refugee from Donetsk, must again confront invasion and terror near Kyiv.
Through their intersecting journeys, Rafeyenko explores how the living and the dead remain bound by memory, love, and loss. Rich with allusions to Ezra Pound, Hans Christian Andersen, Ukrainian classics, and The Mahābhārata, Petrichor reveals how, even in the midst of devastation, language and imagination sustain the possibility of life.