This beautiful story provides real insight into what the people of Ukraine have suffered through since 2014 and before. Sergey Serveyich and his frenemy Pashko are the last two residents of Little Starhorodivka, a village in Ukraine’s grey zone between Russian troops and Ukraine loyalists. They reach an uneasy detente by neglecting to talk about political sympathies and sharing resources. When Sergey decides he needs to move his beehives for the summer to an environment healthier for the production of honey, the novel opens the question of what constitutes a home, with the bees as a metaphor for community. Sergey and his hives go on walkabout, looking for a safe and suitably rural setting. Sergey crosses multiple checkpoints and meets people on all sides of the crisis, encountering power outages, food shortages, political persecution, and nonsensical regulations. He’s an admirable character, maintaining his equanimity for the sake of his beloved bees. “He left behind him a war in which he had taken no part, in which he had simply happened to have found himself dwelling… [B]ees don’t understand what war is. Bees don’t switch from peace to war and back again” (143). His dedication is a reminder of the resilience of people who commit themselves to life and community.