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Endling
- Author
- Maria Reva
- Publisher
- Little, Brown Book Group
- Publish Date
- 19 August 2025
- Run Time
- 10 hours 49 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
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What to expect
* WINNER OF THE GORDON BURN PRIZE 2026 *
* SHORTLISTED FOR THE CLIMATE FICTION PRIZE *
* WINNER OF THE ATWOOD GIBSON WRITERS' TRUST FICTION PRIZE *
* WINNER OF THE AMAZON CANADA FIRST NOVEL AWARD *
* A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: GUARDIAN, OBSERVER, IRISH TIMES, BBC, WASHINGTON POST, THE NEW YORKER, NPR, GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY *
An unforgettable debut novel about the journey of three women and one extremely endangered snail through contemporary Ukraine
'A fierce and funny road-trip novel' GUARDIAN, the 50 hottest books to read right now
'Inventive and playful' SUNDAY TIMES
'A stunning debut' OBSERVER
'I was gripped . . . Brilliant' DAILY MAIL
'A thrilling ride' FINANCIAL TIMES
'A bold, brilliant, original, funny and devastating novel' KATE MCLOUGHLIN, TLS
'Brilliant and heart-stopping' LOS ANGELES TIMES
'Startling and ambitious' NEW YORK TIMES
'Animated by dark humor and cool fury' NEW YORKER
'Dexterous and formally inventive' MARCEL THEROUX, GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE DAY
Ukraine, 2022. Yeva is a maverick scientist who scours the country's forests and valleys, trying and failing to breed rare snails while her relatives urge her to settle down and start a family of her own. What they don't know: Yeva already dates plenty of men-not for love, but to fund her work-entertaining Westerners who come to Ukraine on guided romance tours believing they'll find docile brides untainted by feminism.
Nastia and her sister, Solomiya, are also entangled in the booming marriage industry, posing as a hopeful bride and her translator while secretly searching for their missing mother, who vanished after years of fierce activism against the romance tours.
So begins a journey of a lifetime across a country on the brink of war: three angry women, a truckful of kidnapped bachelors, and Lefty, a last-of-his-kind snail with one final shot at perpetuating his species.
* LONGLISTED FOR THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE *
* FINALIST FOR THE GOVERNOR GENERAL'S LITERARY AWARDS *
'Fantastic . . . I love works that are smarter than I am and this is one' PERCIVAL EVERETT, author of Booker-shortlisted JAMES
'Funny and smart, full of science, longing and adventure . . . This is essential reading' ANN PATCHETT, bestselling author of TOM LAKE
'Heartbreaking, hilarious, profound, and vital' LARA PRESCOTT, bestselling author of THE SECRETS WE KEEP
Critics Review
-
Deeply original ... Reva writes as though powered by a jolt of adrenalin ... Endling conjures the deeply online sense of the darkly funny material that emerges from unprecedented times
Observer Books of the Year
-
Pulls off the trick of being a witty satire, a meta-fiction about how to write about your country and planet in crisis, and a deeply moving war story, all at the same time
Emma Donoghue, Irish Times Books of the Year
-
A Ukrainian caper taking in endangered snail species and the marriage industry is disrupted, in both the writing and the reading, by Russia's full-scale invasion. Reva handles the formal demands of melding autofiction, road trip and blistering reportage with poignancy and flair
Guardian Books of the Year
-
Endling shouldn't be funny, but it is - very. Set in Ukraine just as Putin invades, it features three young women, on two different missions, in one vehicle. Structurally wild and playful, Endling is also heart-rending and angry. It examines colonialism, old and neo, the role of women, identity, power and powerlessness, and the very nature of fiction-writing. Maria Reva also tells a riveting, unique story; the shock is that this is her first novel. It's a book about the world now, and about three unforgettable women, Yeva, Nastia and Solomiya, travelling together in a mobile lab. The endling, by the way, is a snail
Booker Prize
See more reviews See fewer reviews
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Maria Reva has made a fantastic novel. It's about so much and yet is laser focused. A scientist who funds her research with sex work, a wild and, at the same time, sensible and normal move. This novel turns corners and tables. I love works that are smarter than I am and this is one
Percival Everett, author of Booker-shortlisted JAMES
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In Maria Reva's all-around brilliant novel Endling, the fate of some snails serves as a harbinger for the fate of Ukraine. The book is funny and smart, full of science, longing and adventure, all the while reminding us what the world stands to lose, and what it has already lost. This is essential reading
Ann Patchett, bestselling author of TOM LAKE
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Heartbreaking, hilarious, profound, and vital, Endling is a brilliant, visceral journey that pulses with a powerful sense of urgency and relevance to our times
Lara Prescott, bestselling author of THE SECRETS WE KEEP
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A fierce and funny road-trip novel which is - literally - interrupted by Russia's invasion
Guardian, The 50 hottest books to read right now
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Inventive and powerful. The reminders that these characters are fiction emphasises that the horror and the violence are real
Sunday Times
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A thrilling ride . . . Tender but never mawkish . . . Reva is breaking down the molecules of fiction to get at a 'broader, truer truth' through her combination of drama, self-examination and, notably, humour
Financial Times
-
A dexterous and formally inventive debut novel ... Reva shares with us personal details about her connection with Ukraine, as well as her awareness of the war and the artistic challenge she faces: can anyone in good conscience make fiction out of these tragic events? The answer to that question is resoundingly affirmative.
Marcel Theroux, Guardian Book of the Day
-
A stunning debut . . . [its] formal adventurousness demonstrates the depth that the novel can bring to issues we struggle to reckon with
Observer
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I was gripped by Yeva's journey across her beautiful, war-ravaged country with her fragile yet hardy snails, a symbol of hope and endurance even when death seems inevitable. Brilliant
Daily Mail
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Suspenseful and powered by a rare urgency
Mail on Sunday
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Startling and ambitious
New York Times
-
Brilliant and heart-stopping
Los Angeles Times
-
Remarkable . . . Reva tests the boundaries of storytelling with freshness and humour
Washington Post
-
Animated by dark humor and cool fury
New Yorker
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A virtuosic debut novel ... Starting out as a straightforward story about a Ukrainian biologist, this witty, shape-shifting book turns into something trickier and more interesting ... Indeed, for all her humor and brio - she's never, ever preachy - Reva knows what she's joking about
NPR
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An impressive high-wire act-one that blends the horror of the war with all the bleak and unintended absurdity it has produced in its wake ... The intrusion of reality also elevates Reva's novel, transforming it into a moving exploration of the pain of creating art, particularly art based on the pain of others
The Nation
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Maria Reva's dazzling debut novel Endling will take you on a ride you will never forget. Into this brilliant stew of a novel the fearless Reva stirs Ukraine's notorious "romance tour" industry, feminist activists, a kidnapping caper, the fine science of snail conservation, the eternal mysteries of family dynamics and Europe's first major land war since World War II. Only a supremely talented writer could handle material like this, and Reva--who seems incapable of writing a dud sentence--shows she's more than up to the task. Open this book, fasten your seatbelt, and brace for impact
Ben Fountain, prize-winning author of BILLY LYNN'S LONG HALFTIME WALK
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Wild, exhilarating, heartbreaking...Over and over again, Endling delivers flashes of beauty and grace and dares us to see hope amidst wreckage and ruin
Anelise Chen, author of CLAM DOWN
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Ironic, sharp, and wise, this is a big (meta)fictional achievement
Karan Mahajan, author of THE ASSOCIATION OF SMALL BOMBS
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This work on feminist outrage, environmental destruction, and the inhumanity of war is not didactic; instead, it is a page-turning, genre-bending meta-novel as entertaining as it is gut-wrenching, whose experiments with literary form will keep readers on their toes
Library Journal (starred review)
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Full of suspense and humor, while never letting go of what is really happening in the lives of Ukrainian people at home and abroad . . . A noteworthy literary achievement and also a good story, sure to be widely discussed and enjoyed.
Kirkus (starred review)
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Astonishing . . . this inspired and urgent novel is bound to make a major splash
Publisher's Weekly (starred review)
-
Gripping . . . neither a work of magical realism nor auto-fiction or memoir, but an original piece encapsulating elements of all three'
NZ Herald
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Playful . . . never boring
The Times
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[A] smart, funny novel . . . Reva is a complete original . . . a huge amount of fun
Daily Telegraph
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Ludic, heart-breaking and hilarious
The Times
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A bold, brilliant, original, funny and devastating novel about Russia's war on Ukraine . . . Endling and Reva's earlier collection of short stories, Good Citizens Need Not Fear, are worthy inheritors of the tradition of Gogol: faux-naif, searing, uncompromising . . . Endling is a superb novel, and a superb novel about war
TLS
-
Heartfelt and scalding . . .Snails and subterfuge meet striking metafictional commentary in Maria Reva's tour de force, Endling
BookPage (starred review)
User Reviews
No reviews yet.
Details
- Author
- Maria Reva
- Narrator
- Maria Reva, Max Meyers, Saskia Maarleveld
- Duration
- 10 hours 49 minutes
- Release Date
- 19 August 2025
- ISBN
- 9780349021164
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Little, Brown Book Group
- Genre
- Modern and contemporary fiction: literary and general, Climate change
Synopsis
* LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025 ** WINNER OF THE GORDON BURN PRIZE 2026 ** SHORTLISTED FOR THE CLIMATE FICTION PRIZE ** WINNER OF THE ATWOOD GIBSON WRITERS' TRUST FICTION PRIZE ** WINNER OF THE AMAZON CANADA FIRST NOVEL AWARD ** A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: GUARDIAN, OBSERVER, IRISH TIMES, BBC, WASHINGTON POST, THE NEW YORKER, NPR, GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY *An unforgettable debut novel about the journey of three women and one extremely endangered snail through contemporary Ukraine 'A fierce and funny road-trip novel' GUARDIAN, the 50 hottest books to read right now 'Inventive and playful' SUNDAY TIMES'A stunning debut' OBSERVER'I was gripped . . . Brilliant' DAILY MAIL'A thrilling ride' FINANCIAL TIMES'A bold, brilliant, original, funny and devastating novel' KATE MCLOUGHLIN, TLS 'Brilliant and heart-stopping' LOS ANGELES TIMES 'Startling and ambitious' NEW YORK TIMES 'Animated by dark humor and cool fury' NEW YORKER 'Dexterous and formally inventive' MARCEL THEROUX, GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE DAY Ukraine, 2022. Yeva is a maverick scientist who scours the country's forests and valleys, trying and failing to breed rare snails while her relatives urge her to settle down and start a family of her own. What they don't know: Yeva already dates plenty of men-not for love, but to fund her work-entertaining Westerners who come to Ukraine on guided romance tours believing they'll find docile brides untainted by feminism. Nastia and her sister, Solomiya, are also entangled in the booming marriage industry, posing as a hopeful bride and her translator while secretly searching for their missing mother, who vanished after years of fierce activism against the romance tours. So begins a journey of a lifetime across a country on the brink of war: three angry women, a truckful of kidnapped bachelors, and Lefty, a last-of-his-kind snail with one final shot at perpetuating his species.* LONGLISTED FOR THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE ** FINALIST FOR THE GOVERNOR GENERAL'S LITERARY AWARDS *'Fantastic . . . I love works that are smarter than I am and this is one' PERCIVAL EVERETT, author of Booker-shortlisted JAMES 'Funny and smart, full of science, longing and adventure . . . This is essential reading' ANN PATCHETT, bestselling author of TOM LAKE'Heartbreaking, hilarious, profound, and vital' LARA PRESCOTT, bestselling author of THE SECRETS WE KEEP
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